Stom  f0e  fLiGtatv  of 

(professor  TEtfftdtn  JE)enr2  <B>reen 

QSequeaf 0eo  6e  0tm  fo 
f 0e  £tfirar^  of 

(princeton  £#eofo<jtcaf  ^emtnarg 

.  K3(o 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


UNDER    THE  PHARAOHS 


By  JOHN  KENRICK,  M.A. 


'Apiirpeireuv  ytvoi  dvSpuiv 
Ot  TTpMroi  Ptdroio  6uarfiiravTO  keXcoBovs, 
Tipujroi  6'  ifiepoevTOS  iittipr](savTo  dp6rpovf 
J  Ipiorot  6i  ypaiifirjai  nd\ov  6it^itTpfiaavToy 
QvfiC)  (fipacaafievoi  \o£ov  dpofiov  tieX'ioio. 

Dionysii  Periegesis, 


N     TWO  VOLUMES 

VOL.  II. 


REDFIELD, 

CLINTON    HALL,  NEW 
1  352. 


YORK. 


CONTESTS. 


vii 


Page 

order  of  succession. — Amosis,  173. — Amenophis  L,  174. — Thoth- 
mes L,  177.— Thothmes  IL,  180.— Thothmes  IIL,  181.— Ameno- 
phis It,  196.— Thothmes  IV.,  197.— Amenophis  III.,  197.— 
Horus,  208. — Rameses  I,  212. — Setei-Menephthah,  215. — Rame- 
ses IL,  226.— Rameses  III,  (Sesostris),  228.— Monephthah  ft., 
246.— Setei-Menephthah  IL,  249.— Chronology  of  the  eigh- 
teenth dynasty,  250    .       .  167-250 

The  Nineteenth  Dynasty. 

Suspicions  of  its  identity  with  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth. — 
The  Pheron  and  Polybus  of  the  Greeks. — Reflections  on  the 
history  of  Egypt  under  the  eighteenth  dynasty. — Extension  of 
dominion  to  Asia. — Importance  of  Palestine  and  Syria  to 
Egypt. — Historical  character  of  the  Egyptian  monuments. — Con- 
nexion between  Egypt  and  Greece. — The  Exodus  of  the  Israel- 


ites.— Date  of  their  going  down  into  Egypt — Manetho's  account 

of  their  expulsion   250-272 

The  Twentieth  Dynasty. 

Rameses  IY.,  273. — Rameses  Y.-XIY.,  282, — Relations  of  Egypt 

and  Assyria. — Decline  of  art   273-285 

The  Twenty-first  Dynasty. 

Antiquity  of  Tanis. — Deficiency  of  monuments. — Relations  of 

Judaea  and  Egypt   285-289 

The  Twenty-second  Dynasty. 

Bubastis — its  description  by  - Herodotus. — Sheshonk,  Sesonchis, 
the  Shishak  of  Scripture,  291. — Osorthon  (Zerach),  296. — 
Takellothis   289-299 

The  Twenty-third  Dynasty  299-301 


Vlll  CONTENJS. 

Page 

The  Twenty-fourth  Dynasty. 
Sais. — Settlement  of  the  Greeks  in  Egypt. — Reign  of  Bocchoris    .  301-304 

The  Twenty -fifth  Dynasty. 

The  Ethiopians  of  the  8th  century  B.C. — Sabaco,  308. — Sevechus, 

310.— Tirhkah,  310.— Invasion  of  Sennacherib         .       .       .  305-316 

The  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty. 

The  Dodecarchia, — Psammitichus,  323. — Neco,  335. — Psammiti- 
chus  II.  (Psammis),  344. — Uaphris  (Apries,  Hophra),  347. — 
Amasis,  359. — Psaminenitus  *  316-373 

The  Twenty-seventh  Dynasty. 

Cambyses,  374. — Darius,  400. — Xerxes  the  Great,  404. — Artaba- 
nus,  406. — Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  406. — Xerxes  II. — Sogdia- 
nus. — Darius  Xothus,  412    374-412 

The  Twenty-eighth  Dynasty. 
Amyrtaeus  412-414 

The  Twenty-ninth  Dynasty. 

Isepherites,  416. — Achoris,  418. — Psammuthis,  419. — Xepherites, 

419   .  414^19 

The  Thirtieth  Dynasty. 

Nectanebus  (Nectanebus  L),  419. — Teos  (Tachos),  423. — Nectane- 

bus  II.,  428.— His  flight  into  Ethiopia  419-432 


Reconquest  of  Egypt  by  Darius  Ochus,  432. — Final  conquest  by 
Alexander  the  Great,  433. — Division  of  Alexander's  empire  and 
establishment  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies         .       .       .  432-435 


Index 


437 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 

Among  the  marks  of  an  excessive  superstition  which  characterized 
the  ancient  Egyptians,  nothing  struck  the  traveller  of  another 
nation  more  than  the  honors  paid  to  brute  animals,  and  their 
employment  as  representatives  of  their  deities.  The  representation 
of  the  gods  under  such  forms  had  ceased  among  the  Greeks ;  the 
legends  of  Io  and  the  Minotaur  prove  that  their  practice-  had  once 
been  partially  influenced  by  that  of  the  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians  ; 
but  the  mythic  explanations  which  had  been  framed  of  these  sym- 
bols at  Argos  and  in  Crete,  show  how  remote  must  have  been  the 
aera  of  their  introduction,  and  how  repugnant  the  worship  to  which 
they  belong  to  the  refined  taste  of  the  later  Greeks.  A  slight  mix- 
ture of  the  animal  with  the  human  form,  and  that  in  the  person  of 
an  inferior  deity — a  Faun,  a  Centaur,  or  Medusa — was  the  utmost 
that  it  could  tolerate.  In  poetry,  art  and  divination  certain  ani- 
mals were  appropriated  to  the  different  gods, — the  eagle  to  Jupi- 
ter, the  raven  to  Apollo,  the  goat  to  Pan,  the  bull  in  later  times  to 
Bacchus ;  but  they  were  not  kept  within  their  temples  or  approached 
with  divine  rites,  as  their  visible  representatives ;  much  less  was  the 
whole  race  consecrated  to  them,  and  the  life  of  every  individual 
protected  by  law  or  popular  superstition.  Herds  of  cattle,  exempt 
vol.  h.  1 


2 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


from  the  yoke  and  from  all  profane  uses,  fed  in  the  groves  and 
pastures  included  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  temples ;  but 
though  consecrated  to  the  divinity,  they  were  not  considered  as  his 
emblems,  and  their  inviolability  was  their  only  sanctity.  The  ser- 
pent of  the  temple  of  Epidaurus,  who  was  sacred  to  ^Esculapius, 
and  seems  in  some  measure  to  have  been  considered  as  the  god 
himself,  is  the  nearest  approach  that  we  find  in  Greece  to  the 
veneration  paid  to  the  sacred  animals  of  Egypt2. 

As  some  of  the  gods  of  Egypt  were  held  in  equal  honor  through- 
out the  whole  country,  while  others  enjoyed  supreme  rank  in  some 
one  nome,  and  held  only  a  subordinate  place  elsewhere,  so  some 
animals  were  partially,  others  universally  worshipped.  The  ox,  the 
dog  and  the  cat,  the  ibis  and  the  hawk,  the  fishes  lepidotus  and 
oxyrrynchus  were  held  in  reverence  throughout  the  land ;  the  sheep 
only  in  the  Thebau  and  Saitic  nomes,  the  wolf  at  Lycopolis,  the 
cynocephalus  at  Hermopolis,  the  Cepus  (an  animal  of  the  ape  tribe) 
at  Babylon  near  Memphis,  the  eagle  at  Thebes,  the  lion  at  Leon- 
topolis,  the  goat  at  Mendes,  the  shrewmouse  at  Athribis,  and 
others  elsewhere3.  According  to  Herodotus4,  all  the  animals 
which  the  country  produced,  whether  wild  or  domestic,  were  sacred, 
and  with  a  few  unimportant  exceptions  this  appears  to  be  true.  To 
every  one  of  them  curators  male  and  female  were  appointed,  pro- 
bably of  the  sacerdotal  order,  whose  office  descended  by  inheritance. 
A  portion  of  land  was  assigned  for  their  maintenance,  and  the 
superstition  of  the  multitude  provided  other  means  of  supply. 
Parents  made  vows  to  the  gods,  to  whom  they  were  respectively 

1  The  serpent  was  taken  to  Rome  A.U.C.  462,  after  a  pestilence.  "Quura 
civitas  pestilenlia  laboraret,  missi  legati,  ut  iEsculapii  signum  Romara  ab 
Epidauro  transferrent,  anguem,  qui  se  in  nayem  eorum  contulerat,  in  quo 
ipsum  numen  esse  constabat,  deportavere." — Li  v.  Epit,  lib.  11. 

2  Plutarch,  Isid.  et  Osir.  p.  379  D,  points  out  the  difference  between  the 
Greek  consecration  of  animals  to  the  gods  and  the  Egyptian  worship  of 
them. 

•Strabo,  17,812,  813.  *  2,  35. 


AMMAL  WORSHIP. 


3 


sacred,  for  the  health  of  their  children,  especially  if  they  were  sick, 
and  the  vow  was  discharged  by  expending  on  food  for  the  sac-fed 
animals  a  weight  of  silver  equal  to  that  of  the  children's  hair1. 
Their  ordinary  residence  was  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple,  and 
in  its  most  sacred  recess.  "  Among  the  Egyptians,"  says  Clemens 
Alexandrinus2,  "  the  temples  are  surrounded  with  groves  and  con- 
secrated pastures;  they  are  furnished  with  propylaea,  and  their 
courts  are  encircled  with  an  infinite  number  of  columns  ;  their  walls 
glitter  with  foreign  marbles  and  paintings  of  the  highest  art ;  the 
naos  is  resplendent  with  gold  and  silver  and  electrum,  and  variegated 
stones  from  India  and  Ethiopia ;  the  adytum  is  veiled  by  a  curtain 
wrought  with  gold.  But  if  you  pass  beyond  into  the  remotest  part 
of  the  enclosure,  hastening  to  behold  something  yet  more  excellent, 
and  seek  for  the  image  which  dwells  in  the  temple,  a  pastophorus 
or  some  one  else  of  those  who  minister  in  sacred  things,  with  a 
pompous  air  singing  a  Paean  in  the  Egyptian  tongue,  draws  aside 
a  small  portion  of  the  curtain,  as  if  about  to  show  us  the  god  ;  and 
makes  us  burst  into  a  loud  laugh.  For  no  god  is  found  within,  but 
a  cat,  or  a  crocodile,  or  a  serpent  sprung  from  the  soil,  or  some 
such  brute  animal ;  the  Egyptian  deity  appears  a  beast  rolling 
himself  on  a  purple  coverlet."  "  The  temples  of  Egypt  are  most 
beautiful,"  says  Diodorus ;  "  but  if  you  seek  within,  you  find  an 
ape,  or  ibis,  a  goat,  or  a  cat."  The  choicest  food  was  placed  before 
them,  cakes  of  fine  flour,  steeped  in  milk  or  smeared  with  honey ; 
the  flesh  of  geese,  roasted  or  boiled,  and  that  of  birds  and  fish 
uncooked  for  the  carnivorous  class.  They  were  placed  in  warm 
baths  and  anointed  with  costly  perfumes  ;  and  everything  was  sup- 
plied to  them  which  could  gratify  their  appetites6.  This  charge 
was  thought  so  honorable,  that  their  curators,  when  they  went 
abroad,  wore  certain  insignia  by  which  their  office  might  be  dis- 
1  Her.  2,  65.    Diod.  1,  83.  '  Psedag.  3,  2,  p.  253,  Potter. 

8  'OjiotpvXovi  Ori^tias  «arrrw  tmv  ^w<jv  raj  cveiScotolto. j  aWTf>t<povoivt  8s  naWaKiSas 
irpooayopcvovoi.     Diod.  1,  84. 


4 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


criminated  even  at  a  distance,  and  were  received  with  genuflexions 
antJ.  other  marks  of  honor.  When  any  of  the  sacred  animals  died, 
it  was  embalmed,  swathed,  and  buried  in  a  consecrated  depository 
near  the  temple  of  its  god ;  if  a  cat  died  even  in  a  private  house, 
the  inmates  clipped  off  the  hair  from  their  brows  in  sign  of  mourn- 
ing ;  if  a  dog,  from  the  head  and  body.  Voluntarily  to  kill  any 
one  of  the  consecrated  animals  was  a  capital  offence ;  involuntarily 
it  entailed  a  penalty  fixed  at  the  discretion  of  the  priests :  but 
voluntarily  or  involuntarily  to  kill  an  ibis  or  a  hawk,  the  saovd 
birds  of  Thoth  and  Horus,  was  capital ;  and  the  enraged  multitude 
did  not  wait  for  the  slow  process  of  law,  but  put  the  offender  to 
death  with  their  own  hands.  On  the  part  of  native  Egyptians  it 
was  an  almost  unheard-of  crime ;  and  so  great  was  the  dread  of 
being  suspected  of  it,  that  those  who  accidentally  saw  one  of  the 
sacred  animals  lying  dead,  stood  aloof,  protesting  with  lamentations 
that  they  had  found  it  dead.  Diodorus  himself  was  witness  to 
such  a  movement  of  popular  fanaticism :  a  Roman  had  uninten- 
tionally killed  a  cat ;  the  king  Ptolemy  Auletes  had  not  yet  been 
received  into  the  friendship  of  the  Romans,  and  it  was  an  object  of 
great  importance,  both  to  him  and  to  the  Egyptian  nation,  to  give 
them  no  umbrage  ;  yet  neither  the  terror  of  the  Roman  people  nor 
the  efforts  of  the  king,  who  sent  one  of  his  chief  officers  to  inter- 
cede, could  save  the  unfortunate  man  from  death.  Even  in  times 
of  famine,  when  they  were  driven  to  consume  human  flesh1,  the 
Egyptians  were  never  known  to  use  the  sacred  animals  for  food. 
Antiquarian  researches  have  confirmed  the  statements  of  ancient 
authors  respecting  the  veneration  paid  to  them ;  the  embalmed 
bodies  of  bulls,  cows,  and  sheep,  dogs  and  cats,  hawks  and  ibises, 
serpents  and  beetles,  and  in  short,  nearly  the  whole  zoology  of 
Egypt,  except  the  horse  and  the  ass,  have  been  found  in  excava- 
tions2.   The  numerous  figures  of  these  animals  also,  of  all  sizes  and 

1  See  vol.  I.  p.  ft 

2  Wilkinson,  5,  100,  103.    Pettigrew  on  Mummies,  183-226. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


5 


materials,  from  the  colossal  ram  or  lion  of  basalt  or  granite,  to  the 
portable  image  of  bronze,  wood  or  porcelain1,  were  probably  devoted 
to  religious  purposes,  tbe  larger  having  been  placed  in  temples  or 
dromoi,  the  smaller  used  in  private  devotion,  as  amulets  and  sacred 
ornaments,  or  deposited  for  good  omen  along  with  human  mum- 
mies. 

The  origin  of  this  characteristic  superstition  was  the  subject  of 
various  explanations  by  the  Egyptians  themselves,  and  by  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.  Manetho  attributed  the  establishment -of  the 
worship  of  Apis  and  Mnevis  and  the  Mendesian  goat  to  the  reign  of 
Caiechos,  the  second  king  of  his  second  dynasty.  But  specific  dates 
of  national  religious  usages  are  never  much  to  be  depended  upon, 
and  we  seek  some  more  general  cause  than  the  enactment  of  a  legis- 
lator for  a  practice  which  had  taken  such  deep  roots  among  a  whole 
people.  In  the  age  of  Diodorus'2  the  Egyptian  priests  alleged,  that 
Isis  had  commanded  them  to  consecrate  some  animal  from  among 
those  which  the  country  produced,  to  Osiris ;  to  pay  to  it  the  same 
honor  as  to  the  god,  during  its  life,  and  bestow  the  same  care 
upon  it  after  its  death.  This  explanation  has  evidently  been  pro- 
duced in  an  age  when  the  worship  of  Osiris  had  become  predomi- 
nant over  all  others,  and  the  rest  of  the  gods  were  .-regarded  as 
only  different  manifestations  of  him.  The  bulls  Apis  and  Mnevis, 
however,  were  said  to  be  specially  consecrated  to  him,  and  honored 
by  all  the  Egyptians  without  exception,  in  consequence  of  the  ser- 
vice of  the  ox  in  agriculture,  which  Osiris  taught  mankind.  Such, 
was  the  sacerdotal  account:  the  popular  explanations  were  three- 
fold3; according  to  the  first,  which  Diodorus  pronounces  to  be 
altogether  fabulous,  and  savoring  of  antique  simplicity,  the  original 
gods,  being  few  in  number,  and  no  match  for  the  iniquities  and 
violence  of  men,  took  the  shape  of  animals  to  escape  from  them, 
and  afterwards,  when  they  became  masters  of  the  whole  world, 

1  Birch.  Gall,  of  Antiq.  p.  49-60.  2  Diod.  1,  21. 

*  Ot  ttoXXoi  tuv  AiyvKTiuv  rceis  airin;  rubric  iw»iiiSn  (Diod.  1,  86). 


6 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


consecrated  and  appropriated  these  animals  to  themselves,  in  gra- 
titude. According  to  the  second,  the  images  of  animals  fixed  on 
spears  having  been  used  as  ensigns  to  distinguish  the  corps  of  the 
army  and  prevent  confusion,  victory  followed,  and  the  animals 
became  objects  of  worship1.  This  explanation  evidently  inverts 
the  order  of  cause  and  effect ;  the  animals  were  used  as  ensigns, 
because  they  had  previously  been  associated  with  the  gods.  The 
third  reason  is  the  only  one  which  has  any  plausibility,  or  even 
partially  attains  the  truth — that  animals  were  consecrated  on 
account  of  the  benefit  which  mankind  derived  from  them2 ;  the 
bull  and  cow  from  their  services  in  agriculture  and  in  supplying 
man  with  nourishment;  the  sheep  from  its  rapid  multiplication 
and  the  utility  of  its  fleece,  its  milk  and  its  cheese ;  the  dog,  for  its 
use  in  hunting ;  the  cat,  because  it  destroys  asps  and  other  veno- 
mous reptiles;  the  ichneumon,  because  it  sucks  the  eggs  of  the 
crocodile,  and  even  destroys  the  animal  itself,  by  creeping  into  its 
mouth  and  gnawing  its  intestines ;  the  ibis  and  the  hawk,  because 
they  destroy  snakes  and  vermin.  Till  metaphysical  reasons  wrere 
devised,  this  seems  to  have  been  the  explanation  most  generally 
received  by  the  ancients  ;  but  it  does  not  solve  the  whole  problem. 
If  the  ichneumon  or  the  hawk  were  worshipped  because  they 
destroyed  serpents  and  crocodiles,  why  the  serpent  and  the  croco- 
dile ?  Or  if  the  ibis  was  worshipped  because  it  devours  snakes  and 
vermin,  why  was  it  specially  consecrated  to  Thoth,  the  god  of 
letters  ? 

Diodorus  has  elsewhere  given  a  still  more  improbable  explana- 
tion than  any  that  we  have  mentioned3.  He  says  that  one  of  the 
kings  of  Egypt,  more  sagacious  than  the  rest,  seeing  that  the 
people  frequently  conspired  against  their  rulers,  established  a 
separate  worship  in  every  nome,  in  order  that,  being  alienated 
from  each  other  by  their  religious  usages  and  fanatical  zeal,  they 

1  Diod.  1,  85.  See  vol.  i.  p.  193.  Rosellini,  M.  Civ.  pi.  cxxi.  vol.  3,  p.  229. 
8  Cic.  N.  D.  1,  29 ;  Tusc.  Qusest.  5,  21.         3  1,  89.    Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  380. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


7 


might  never  be  able  to  unite  for  the  overthrow  of  the  government. 
This  explanation  marks  an  age  in  which  men  not  only  theorized 
on  the  institutions  of  past  times,  but  transferred  to  them  the  maxims 
of  a  vicious  policy  with  which  they  were  themselves  familiar. 

The  hypothesis  which  Lucian  proposes  in  his  Astrologia1,  that 
the  objects  of  adoration  among  the  Egyptians  were  the  asterisms 
of  the  zodiac,  the  Bull,  the  Ram,  the  Goat,  the  Fish,  is  sufficiently 
refuted  by  the  circumstance  that  many  of  their  sacred  animals  are 
not  found  in  the  heavens,  as  the  ibis,  the  cat,  the  crocodile.  It  is 
known  too  that  all  monuments  of  Egypt  on  which  figures  of  ani- 
mals appear  in  the  zodiac,  are  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  times. 
Porphyry2,  in  his  Treatise  on  Abstaining  from  Animal  Food,  says 
that  "  the  Egyptians  had  learnt  by  practice  and  familiarity  with 
the  divinity,  that  the  godhead  pervades  not  man  alone,  nor  does  a 
soul  make  its  only  dwelling-place  on  the  earth  in  him,  but  goes 
through  all  animals,  with  little  difference  of  nature  ;  and  that  hence, 
in  making  representations  of  their  gods,  they  joined  indiscrimi- 
nately portions  of  the  bodies  of  men  and  of  brute  animals,  indi- 
cating that,  according  to  the  purpose  of  the  gods,  there  is  a  certain 
community  even  between  these.  And  for  the  same  reason  the 
Lion  was  worshiped  at  Leontopolis,  and  other  animals  at  other 
places;  for  they  worshiped  the  power  that  is  over  all,  which  each 
of  the  gods  exhibited,  by  means  of  the  animals  which  shared  the 
same  nomes  with  them3."  That  in  the  age  of  Porphyry  anim.-tl 
worship  was  explained  and  justified  by  the  Egyptians  on  this 
ground  is  not  doubtful4 ;  but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  it  origin- 
ated in  a  conception  which  Porphyry  himself  says  they  had 

1  Lucian,  Op.  ed.  Bip.  5,  p.  215,  foil  2  Euseb.  Praep.  Ev.  3,  4. 

3  Aia  rtov  avwofiuv  fuui/.  This  is  an  unusual  sense  of  ovvvjii  •  ,  but  seems  to 
be  required  by  the  connexion. 

*  He  elsewhere  says  that  the  Egyptians  worshiped  animals  because  they 
believed  them  to  be  endowed  with  a  rational  principle  and  the  knowledge 
of  futurity. 


8 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


attained  by  means  of  practice  and  familiarity  with  the  divinity1. 
Plutarch  having  enumerated  various  opinions  respecting  the  motive 
of  the  Egyptian  worship  of  animals,  concludes  by  saying  that  he 
approves  most  of  those  who  honored  not  the  animals  themselves, 
but  the  divinity  through  them.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  natural 
impulse  to  assimilate  our  own  intellectual  principle  to  that  of  the 
Deity,  and  to  attribute  the  imperfect  reason  of  the  brute  animals 
to  the  possession  of  the  same  principle.  "  Wherever  there  appeared 
singular  excellence  among  beasts  or  birds,  there  was  to  the  Indian  j 
the  presence  of  a  divinity2."  It  is  not,  however,  any  Egyptian 
writer,  but  Heraclitus3,  whom  Plutarch  quotes  as  maintaining 
"that  a  nature  which  lives  and  sees,  and  has  a  principle  of  motion 
in  itself,  and  knowledge  of  what  is  congenial  or  alien  to  it,  has 
snatched  an  efflux  and  particle  from  that  which  devises  the  govern- 
ment of  the  universe."  This  therefore  is  probably  also  a  refinement 
of  philosophy.  The  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis  has  been  sup- 
posed to  have  had  an  influence  in  producing  animal  worship ;  but 
Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  has  justly  observed,  that  human  souls, 
undergoing  transmigration,  were  in  prison  and  in  purgatory4,  and 
therefore  they  were  not  likely  to  have  procured  divine  honors  for 
the  animals  in  which  they  dwelt. 

Since,  then,  it  is  evident  that  all  which  the  ancients  have  left  us 
in  explanation  of  this  subject,  is  only  hypothesis  more  or  less  pro- 
bable, we  are  at  liberty  to  seek  a  solution  for  ourselves,  either  in 
analogies  derived  from  other  nations,  or  in  the  general  principles 
of  human  nature.  Such  analogies  are  indeed  chiefly  valuable,  as 
proving  that  the  practice  has  a  foundation  in  human  nature. 
India  is  the  land  which  in  this  respect  most  closely  resembles 
Egypt ;  the  cow  is  there  an  object  of  adoration,  and  no  devotee  of 
Isis  or  Athor  could  have  regarded  its  slaughter  for  food  with 

1  ' A.vo  ravrris  bpficofisvoi  r/}j  avKfiarus  ko.1  -fjs  ~pds  to  Qciuv  oixeidjaecos, 
9  Bancroft,  Hist,  of  United  States,  3,  p.  285. 

•  Is.  et  Os.  p.  382.  4  Mann,  and  Oust.  5,  112. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


9 


greater  horror  than  a  Hindoo.  Annual  worship  is  paid  to  her  on 
the  day  on  which  she  was  created  along  with  the  Bramins ;  and 
those  who  are  more  than  commonly  religious  worship  her  daily, 
feeding  her  with  fresh  grass,  and  walking  thrice  or  seven  times 
round  her,  making  obeisance.  The  ape,  under  the  name  of  Hanu- 
man,  has  his  images  in  temples  and  private  houses,  to  which  daily 
homage  is  offered.  A  statue  of  the  jackal  is  seen  in  many  temples, 
where  it  is  regularly  worshiped  ;  when  a  Hindoo  meets  the  animal 
on  his  way,  he  bows  reverentially  to  it ;  and  food,  regarded  as  an 
offering  to  the  god,  is  daily  placed  in  a  part  of  the  house  to  which 
he  resorts  to  consume  it.  Other  animals,  which  are  considered  as 
the  emblems,  or,  as  the  Hindoos  express  it,  the  vehicles  of  their 
gods,  are  worshiped  on  the  days  appropriated  to  these  gods1.  The 
nelumbo  and  the  ficus  religiosa2  are  as  sacred  to  the  native  of  India, 
as  the  lotus  and  the  persea  to  the  ancient  Egyptian.  Yet  even  if 
we  had  historical  ground  for  concluding  that  these  religious  ideas 
and  usages  had  been  transplanted  by  colonization  from  India  to 
Egypt,  we  should  only  have  removed  one  step  further  back  the 
difficulty  which  we  seek  to  solve.  In  the  same  way,  if  we  look  to 
Africa  rather  than  India  as  the  source  of  the  Egyptian  population, 
and  find  that  among  the  Negro  races  or  the  Kafirs  of  the  South3, 
traces  of  animal  worship  similar  to  that  of  Egypt  prevail,  we  may 
have  obtained  an  ethnological  argument  for  the  African  origin  of 
the  people,  but  no  explanation  of  the  motive  of  their  superstition. 
The  more  wide  indeed  the  diffusion  of  the  same  or  similar  customs, 
the  less  reason  have  we  to  seek  special  explanations.  The  cause  is 
still  to  be  sought,  to  whatever  country  the  practice  may  be  traced. 
The  sanctity  of  plants  (it  is  said  even  of  stones)  among  the 

1  Ward's  Hindoos,  1,  250. 

2  The  Pippul  or  aspen-leaved  fig-tree.    See  Ritter,  Geogr.  Asien,  6,  681. 

3  Prichard,  Researches,  2,  289,  ed.  3.  "Invenio  scarabanim  taurum  supra 
dictum,  in  magno  honore  esse  apud  ultimos  in  Africa  barbaros  et  velut 
bonum  gcniurn  coli.    Vide  Rolben."    (Zoega,  Or.  et  Us.    Obelise,  p.  450.) 

1* 


10 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Egyptians  is  the  best  proof  that  this  cause  is  to  be  found  in  some 
simple,  obvious,  and  general  feeling,  not  in  those  metaphysical 
refinements  respecting  God  and  the  soul  to  which  it  has  been  attri- 
buted. For  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  a  custom  so  universal  could 
have  sprung  from  a  conception  so  far  removed  from  the  popular 
apprehension,  as  that  even  a  plant  or  a  stone  is  informed  by  a  por- 
tion of  the  universal  spirit.  The  rites  and  forms  of  worship  origi- 
nate in  the  disposition  of  man  to  assimilate  the  Deity  to  himself, 
and  appropriate  to  his  god  what  gratifies  his  own  sense  of  beauty, 
or  excites  his  imagination.  The  lotus  which  so  constantly  appears 
in  offerings  to  the  Egyptian  gods,  the  oak,  the  ivy,  the  olive,  the 
laurel,  consecrated  respectively  to  Jupiter  and  Bacchus,  Minerva 
and  Apollo,  are  among  the  most  beautiful  of  the  vegetable  produc- 
tions of  Egypt  and  Greece.  It  is  not  utility,  in  the  vulgar  sense  of 
the  word,  which  influences  the  selection ;  they  would  otherwise 
have  preferred  grain  or  pulse.  Many  plants,  it  is  true,  appear  to 
have  been  selected  as  objects  of  superstitious  reverence,  both  in  the 
countries  which  we  have  specified,  and  in  others  where  the  same 
custom  has  prevailed,  in  which  no  special  beauty  appears.  The 
peculiarity  of  their  form  may  have  established  an  association  with 
some  religious  rite  or  doctrine,  as  the  passion-flower  has  seemed  to 
the  eye  of  Christian  piety  an  emblem  of  the  cross,  or  the  persea- 
fruit  to  the  Egyptian  to  resemble  a  heart1 ;  or  their  unusual  growth, 
like  that  of  the  parasitic  misletoe,  may  have  afforded  a  slight 
impulse  to  the  fancy,  which  in  connexion  with  religion  especially, 
suffices  for  the  production  of  mystical  feeling.  Their  real  or  exag- 
gerated virtues  in  medicine  may  have  led  to  their  being  regarded 
as  the  choice  gift  of  a  beneficent  deity ;  their  susceptibility  to  atmo- 
spheric influence  may  have  invested  them  with  a  prophetic  virtue 
in  regard  to  changes  of  weather,  and  fruitful  or  sickly  seasons, 
which  imagination  has  exalted  into  a  divinatorial  power.  The 
extraordinary  longevity  of  trees  may  have  caused  them  to  be 
1  Wilkinson,  4,  892. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


11 


regarded  as  emblems  of  divine  power  and  duration,  and  to  be 
invested  with  something  of  that  mysterious  awe  which  attaches  to 
everything  that  has  witnessed  ages  and  generations  long  passed 
away.  We  do  not  pretend  to  analyse  the  ingredients  of  an  imagi- 
native superstition  as  if  it  were  a  conclusion  of  the  understanding, 
or  to  assign  to  every  association  of  religious  feeling  with  the  vege- 
table world  even  a  fanciful  cause.  It  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that 
everywhere  certain  of  its  productions  do  acquire  a  peculiar  connex- 
ion with  religious  feelings  and  ideas.  It  may  be  checked  by  phi- 
losophy and  die  away  before  the  progress  of  scientific  observation ; 
but  it  exists  everywhere  in  human  nature ;  and  if  instead  of  being 
discountenanced  as  in  Christian  countries,  it  were  fostered  by  reli- 
gion, it  might  easily  attain  the  rank  luxuriance  of  Egyptian  super- 
stition. It  was  said  of  this  people  in  the  times  of  the  greatest  cor- 
ruption of  their  religion,  that  "  gods  grew  in  their  gardens1."  This 
however  is  a  mere  satirical  exaggeration ;  it  does  not  appear  that 
anything  which  could  be  fairly  called  worship  was  ever  paid  by  the 
Egyptians  to  plants.  Juvenal  infers  that  onions  were  gods  to  them, 
because  it  was  a  crime  to  eat  them.  Had  this  been  the  case,  it 
would  seem  to  have  been  only  a  restriction  of  diet  imposed  on  the 
priests,  or  those  who  approached  the  gods  as  worshippers2.  They 
were  not  only  commonly  eaten  as  food,  but  were  actually  offered  to 
the  gods8.  As  such  they  might  be  regarded  sacred,  and  like  any 
other  "  gift  on  the  altar,"  be  the  subject  of  an  oath4,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Pliny5,  was  the  case  in  Egypt.    Lucian  says  the  onion  was 

1  Porrum  et  csepe  nefas  violare  et  frangere  morsu. 

O  sanctas  gentes,  quibus  haec  nascuntur  in  hortis 
Numina!— Juv.  Sat.  15,  9.    Comp.  Diod.  1,  89. 

a  Sitim  excitant  et  coraestae  ingratum  spirant  odorem.  G.  J.  Voss.  Idol. 
5,  12.  It  was  a  local  custom  to  abstain  from  particular  vegetables,  as  from 
particular  animals.    Diod.  1,  89. 

3  Wilkinson,  M.  C.  4,  234.  2,  373.  Matt,  xxiii.  19. 

•  N.  H.  19,  32  (6).  Gellius,  N.A.  20,  8,  who  gives  as  a  reason  that  it 
grew  as  the  moon  waxed  and  shrunk  as  it  waned. 


12 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


a  god  at  Pelusium1.  To  swear  by  plants  was  a  custom  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  Egyptians2.  Christianity  does  not  allow  of  a  divi- 
sion of  the  godhead,  nor  consequently  of  such  appropriation  of 
trees  and  flowers  to  special  divinities  as  prevailed  among  the 
heathen  nations ;  yet  our  trivial  names  show  a  connexion  in  the 
popular  mind  with  sacred  or  legendary  history.  It  is  not  the  reH 
gious  feelings  only  which  seek  an  expression  for  themselves  in  sym- 
bols and  associations  derived  from  the  vegetable  world;  their 
beauty,  variety,  and  universal  presence  make  them  ready,  pleasing, 
and  intelligible  emblems  of  emotions  which  are  striving  for  a  sen- 
sible expression.  Love  and  joy,  sorrow  and  despair,  memory  and 
hope,  all  create  to  themselves  a  sympathetic  relation  with  the  form 
and  color,  the  structure  and  functions  of  plants  and  flowers ;  and 
the  mind  with  difficulty  guards  itself  against  superstitious  auguries 
of  its  own  impending  destiny  from  their  health  or  decay. 

This  disposition  in  man  to  connect  himself  and  his  feelings  with 
the  objects  of  the  world  about  him  shows  itself  much  more  strongly 
in  regard  to  animals.  With  them  he  has  really  a  community  of 
nature ;  they  can  not  only  render  him  services,  but  can  reciprocate 
his  kindness  by  marks  of  personal  attachment.  The  absurd  tales 
which  iElian  relates  concerning  animals,  show  what  licence  man 
has  given  to  his  imagination  in  attributing  to  them  the  passions, 
thoughts,  and  even  vices  of  humanity.  Without  having  devised  a 
formal  theory  that  the  same  divine  intelligence  pervades  the  highest 
and  the  lowest  of  animated  beings,  he  regards  their  instinct  with 
a  mysterious  feeling.  In  the  certainty  with  which  it  foresees  the 
future,  it  surpasses  his  own  reason  ;  and  his  imagination,  always 
prone  to  exaggerate,  attributes  to  them  a  superhuman  foreknow- 
ledge.    The  Romans  kept  sacred  chickens,  from  whose  feeding 

3  Jo  v.  Trag.  6,  2*75,  ed.  Bip. 

a  Multi  per  brassicam  jurarunt  ut  Hipponax  in  Iajnbis,  ac  Ionicum  id 
fuisse  juramentum  Ananius,  Teleclides  et  Eupolis  prodiderunt.  G.  J.  Voss, 
ubi  suvra.    Zeno  the  stoic  swore  per  capparim. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


13 


thev  derived  omens  of  the  issue  of  a  battle.  In  all  countries  we 
find  certain  animals  singled  out  which  are  specially  objects  of  inte- 
rest and  attachment  to  man,  whose  familiarity  is  invited,  whose 
lives  are  spared  and  protected,  who  are  maintained,  not  for  the 
services  which  they  render  so  much  as  for  the  feelings  of  affection 
with  which  they  are  regarded,  and  whose  death,  if  accidental,  is 
mourned,  if  intentional,  is  resented,  with  passionate  vehemence. 
Referring  his  own  feelings  to  his  divinities,  it  was  natural  that  man 
should  appropriate  some  animal  as  a  special  favorite  to  each  god, 
and  putting  himself  in  his  place,  should  cherish  and  honor  it  with 
the  same  elaborate  study,  as  his  own  animal  favorites  receive  from 
him.  From  pampering  a  brute  animal  with  the  choicest  food, 
providing  it  with  a  luxurious  bed,  addressing  it  in  the  language  of 
human  affection,  and  mourning  for  its  decease  as  if  some  human 
life  had  been  extinguished,  to  burning  incense  and  reciting  a  litany 
before  it,  is  not  so  wide  a  step  as  it  may  seem1.  Though  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  did  not  worship  animals  as  the  Egyptians  did, 
they  consecrated  them,  as  we  have  before  observed,  to  particular 
divinities,  and  believed  them  to  regard  their  whole  species  with  a 
discriminating  favor2.  Even  the  fanatical  fury  with  which  the 
Egyptians  punished  the  death  of  an  ibis  or  a  cat,  is  not  without  a 
parallel  at  Athens,  where  the  people  condemned  a  man  to  death  for 
killing  a  sparrow  sacred  to  ^Esculapius,  and  another  for  plucking 
a  branch  from  an  ilex  that  grew  in  a  grove  sacred  to  a  hero8.  The 
feelings  with  which  the  stork  is  regarded  in  Holland,  or  the  wren, 
the  swallow  and  the  lady-bird  among  ourselves,  are  such,  that  if 
religion  lent  its  sanction  to  popular  superstition,  they  might  easily 
become  as  sacred  as  the  ibis,  the  hawk  and  the  beetle  to  the 

1  Compare  Her.  2,  69.  The  crocodile  of  Thebes  and  the  lake  Mceris  was 
treated  like  a  favorite  cat  or  lap-dog,  and  ornamented  with  earrings  and 
bracelets. 

2  Comp.        N.  H.  12,  40,  where  several  instances  are  given. 
"  JEl  Var.  H.  5,  17. 


14 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Egyptians.  The  Lemnians  venerated  the  crested  lark  on  account 
of  its  usefulness  in  destroying  the  eggs  of  the  locust ;  and  to  kill  a 
stork  among  the  Thessalians  was  punished  with  banishment  or 
death,  so  highly  was  it  valued  for  its  services  in  destroying  ser- 
pents1. 

We  need  not,  therefore,  seek  elsewhere  than  in  the  feelings  and 
tendencies  of  human  nature  for  the  origin  of  a  superstitious  attach- 
ment and  reverence  for  animals  in  Egypt,  or  their  appropriation  to 
the  gods  of  the  country.  Nor  shall  we  have  much  difficulty  in 
assigning  causes  why  this  disposition  in  Egypt  attained  an  inten- 
sity which  rendered  it  a  national  characteristic.  The  power  of  the 
sacerdotal  order  was  greater  there  than  in  any  country  of  the 
ancient  world,  not  excepting  India,  whose  very  extent  produced  a 
variety  which  is  a  species  of  liberty.  Hence  every  influence  of 
religion  was  carried  in  Egypt  to  the  utmost  possible  degree ;  and 
everything  connected  with  its  doctrines  and  rites  so  arranged  as  to 
make  them  most  impressive  to  the  public  mind.  The  length 
of  time  during  which  it  remained  without  counteraction  from 
philosophy  or  contradiction  from  any  rival  faith,  made  every  reli- 
gious conception  an  inveterate  prejudice.  The  multitude  of  tem- 
ples, in  each  of  which  a  special  animal  worship  was  established, 
concentrated  the  affections  of  the  people  on  an  object  constantly 
within  their  view  and  within  reach  of  their  homage.  The  rivalry 
of  neighboring  nomes,  each  jealous  of  the  honor  of  its  respective 
deity,  would  increase  the  fanatical  attachment  to  the  animal  who 
was  his  type  and  visible  representative2.  It  has  been  thought  that 
the  use  of  hieroglyphical  writing  among  the  Egyptians  tended  to 
produce  animal  worship.    This  could  hardly  be  its  origin,  since  the 

1  Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  p.  380  F.  Plin.  N.  H.  10,  31. 

2  The  Romans  were  compelled  to  employ  an  armed  force  to  quell  a  civil 
war  between  Cynopolis  and  Oxyrrynehus,  occasioned  by  the  one  party 
killing  a  dog,  and  the  other  eating  the  fish  Oxyrrynehus  (Plut.  Is.  et  Os. 
p.  380). 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


15 


hieroglyphic  signs  of  animals  by  no  means  correspond  with  the  names 
of  the  gods,  and  some  of  their  representations  fill  a  humble  pho- 
netic office  in  the  system  of  writing.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that 
the  same  habit  of  mind,  that  of  expressing  qualities  symbolically 
by  means  of  visible  objects,  which  has  given  its  peculiar  character 
to  the  Egyptian  mode  of  writing,  had  a  share  in  producing  the 
practice  of  denoting  the  specific  offices  and  attributes  of  the  divini- 
ties by  means  of  living  animals,  kept  in  their  temples  and  wor- 
shiped as  their  symbols. 

What  those  analogies  were  which  the  Egyptians  found  or  fan- 
cied between  these  attributes  and  the  specific  qualities  of  the  ani- 
mals concentrated  to  them,  we  can  in  general  only  guess.  The 
lordly  bull,  as  a  type  at  once  of  power  and  of  production,  seems  a 
natural  symbol  of  the  mighty  god  Osiris,  who  whether  he  repre- 
sented originally  the  Earth,  the  Sun,  or  the  Nile,  was  certainly 
revered  as  the  great  source  of  life.  The  god  of  Mendes  for  a  simi- 
lar reason  was  fitly  represented  by  a  goat.  The  bright  and  pierc- 
ing eye  of  the  hawk  made  it  an  appropriate  emblem  of  Horns,  who 
was  also  the  Sun ;  the  crocodile  might  naturally  be  adopted  as  a 
symbol  of  the  Nile  which  it  inhabits,  or  from  its  voracious  habits 
and  hostility  to  man,  might  on  the  other  hand  symbolize  Typhon, 
the  principle  of  evil.  We  may  fancy  that  the  Cynocephalus  was 
chosen  to  represent  Thoth,  the  god  of  letters  and  science,  from  the 
near  approach  which  this  animal  makes  to  human  reason.  The 
Oxyrrynchus1  from  his  projecting  snout  may  have  suggested  to  the 
imagination  of  a  votary  the  peculiar  emblem  of  the  Osiris  whom 
Typhon  destroyed,  as  the  Hindu  sees  everywhere  the  sacred  emblem 
of  creative  power.  But  why  was  the  ibis  appropriated  to  the  same 
deity,  or  the  cat  to  Pasht,  or  the  ram  to  Kneph,  or  the  vulture  to 
Isis ;  or  what  made  the  scarabaeus  one  of  the  most  sacred  of  all  the 
animal  types  of  Egypt  ? 

1  The  sacrediiess  of  the  Oxyrrynchus  was  local ;  at  least,  the  paintings 
represent  it  as  being  caught  along  with  other  fk-h  (Wilkinson,  M.  and  CL 
6.  250.} 


1G 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


To  these  questions  we  can  obtain  only  very  unsatisfactory 
answers.  Herodotus  gives  no  explanation  of  the  reasons  why  par- 
ticular animals  were  worshiped,  except  that  he  attributes  the 
worship  of  the  ibis  to  its  utility  in  destroying  serpents,  an  office 
which  modern  naturalists  say  that  it  is  incapable  of  performing. 
He  gives  a  romantic  account  of  the  battle  which  took  place  between 
the  ibis  and  certain  winged  serpents  which  endeavored  to  invade 
Egypt  from  Arabia  in  the  spring1.  The  later  writers,  Plutarch, 
Porphyry,  Horapollo,  account  for  everything,  but  it  is  evident  that 
their  explanations  are  arbitrary  and  of  no  historical  authority. 
Thus  Plutarch  tells  us  that  the  ibis  was  consecrated  to  Thoth  (or 
the  Moon),  because  the  mixture  of  its  black  and  white  feathers  bore 
a  resemblance  to  the  gibbous  moon ;  besides  which  it  forms  an 
equilateral  triangle  from  the  tip  of  its  beak  to  the  extremities  of  its 
feet  when  extended  in  walking.  Further  it  was  consecrated  to  the 
god  of  Medicine,  because  it  had  been  observed  to  drink  only  of  the 
purest  and  most  salubrious  waters,  and  had  given  the  first  hint  of 
a  useful  practice  in  medicine2.  A  Platonist  devised  a  still  more 
fanciful  reason  for  the  reverence  in  which  it  was  held ;  it  has  the 
shape  of  a  heart,  and  its  feathers  are  black  at  the  extremities,  but 
white  elsewhere,  indicating  that  truth  is  dark  outwardly,  but  clear 
within3.  The  crocodile,  having  no  tongue,  is  a  fit  emblem  of  deity, 
since  the  divine  reason  needs  no  utterance,  but  governs  all  in 
silence.  Its  eye  when  in  the  water  is  covered  with  a  membrane 
through  which  it  sees,  but  cannot  be  seen4,  as  the  deity  beholds  all 
things,  being  itself  invisible.    The  scarabseus  was  an  emblem  of  the 

1  Her.  2,  1 5.  Cuvier,  Oss.  Foss.  Disc,  sur  les  Revolutions  du  Globe, 
1826,  p.  175.  Herodotus  does  not  profess  to  have  witnessed  the  combat; 
he  only  saw  the  spines  of  the  serpents. 

2  Plin.  X.  H.  8,  41.  Volucris  in  JEgvpto  qua?  vocatur  ibis,  rostri  adunci- 
tate  per  earn  partem  se  perluit  qua  reddi  ciborum  onera  maxime  salu- 
bre  est. 

8  Hermias  ap.  Wyttenb.  Plut.  Is.  et  Os.  p.  381.  4  Plut.  ibid. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


17 


Sun,  because  no  females  being  found  in  the  species,  the  male 
enclosed  the  new  germ  in  a  round  ball,  and  then  pushed  it  back- 
wards, just  as  the  sun  seems  to  push  the  sphere  of  heaven  back- 
wards, while  he  really  advances  from  west  to  east.  The  asp  was 
likened  to  the  Sun,  because  it  does  not  grow  old,  and  moves  rapidly 
and  smoothly  without  the  aid  of  limbs.  For  the  consecration  of 
the  cat  to  the  Moon  two  reasons  were  assigned ;  the  first,  that  this 
animal  brings  forth  first  one,  then  two,  and  so  on  to  seven,  in  the 
whole  twenty-eight,  the  number  of  the  days  of  a  lunation.  This 
Plutarch  himself  thought  to  border  on  the  fabulous  ;  of  the  second 
he  seems  to  have  judged  more  favorably — that  the  pupils  of  the 
cat's  eyes  are  round  at  the  full  moon,  but  grow  contracted  and  dull 
as  she  wanes. 

These  instances  are  given,  out  of  a  multitude  of  equally  fanciful 
explanations,  to  show  that  those  from  whom  we  derive  our  principal 
knowledge  of  Egyptian  antiquities  knew  no  more  than  we  do  of 
the  real  origin  of  the  things  which  they  undertook  to  explain.  The 
ignorance1  of  the  history  and  habits  of  the  animals  in  question 
which  they  betray  is  not  itself  a  proof  that  they  are  ill-founded; 
for  popular  superstitions  respecting  animals  are  frequently  caused 
by  ignorance,  or  at  best  partial  knowledge  ;  but  it  is  clear  that  they 
are  all  conjectures ;  and  were  we  to  venture  on  other  explanations, 
derived  from  a  more  accurate  zoology,  we  should  not  approach  any 
nearer  to  historical  truth.  Xo  doubt  the  cause  of  the  appropriation 
was  in  many  cases  quite  fanciful,  but  this  makes  the  attempt  more 
hopeless  to  ascertain  what  it  was.  It  may  also  have  been  histo- 
rical, and  in  this  case  the  history  not  having  been  preserved,  no 
conjecture  can  recover  it. 

Of  the  animals  which  are  described  generally  as  sacred,  some 

1  The  amount  of  this  ignorance  is  astonishing,  as  it  relates  to  animals 
■w  hose  habits  are  obvious.  It  was  said,  for  example,  that  the  cat  6th  rwv  <Zr<ov 
co1\an0dvec  rcfuT-net  61  tu  (7tJ//uti.  Plut  Is.  et  Os.  p.  381  with  Wyttenbach'a 
note. 


18 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


were  held  in  a  higher  degree  of  reverence  than  others.  It  does  not 
appear  that  all  were  kept  in  temples,  or  received  divine  honors,  and 
we  know  that  some  which  were  deemed  divinities  in  one  nome 
were  treated  as  nuisances  and  destroyed  in  others.  The  worship 
of  Apis  and  Mnevis,  the  bulls  consecrated  to  Osiris,  exhibits  per- 
haps the  very  highest  point  to  which  this  characteristic  superstition 
of  Egypt  reached.  Apis  was  believed  to  be  born  from  a  ray  which 
darted  from  heaven  (Plutarch  says  from  the  moon)  on  his  mother, 
who  after  his  birth  never  brought  forth  again1.  His  color  was 
black,  but  he  had  a  square  spot  of  white  upon  his  forehead  ;  on  his 
shoulders  the  resemblance  of  an  eagle2,  the  mark  of  a  scarabjeus  on 
his  tongue,  and  the  hairs  were  double  in  his  tail.  It  may  be  easily 
supposed  that  either  some  contrivance  was  used  to  produce  such  an 
unusual  combination  of  marks,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  that  credu- 
lity was  satisfied  with  very  general  resemblances.  It  appears  from 
Herodotus  that  a  considerable  interval  sometimes  elapsed  between 
the  appearance  (ejAphaneia)  of  one  Apis  and  the  death  of  the  other. 
In  Plutarch's  time,  on  his  death  the  priests  immediately  began  the 
search  for  another.  Under  the  charge  of  the  hierogrammats,  who 
repaired  to  the  spot  on  the  intelligence  of  his  discovery,  the  sacred 
calf  was  fed  for  four  months  on  milk,  in  a  house  facing  the  East3. 
At  the  end  of  this  time  he  was  transferred  at  the  new  moon,  in  a 
covered  boat  with  a  gilded  house,  to  Memphis,  amidst  the  rejoicings 
of  the  people.  Psammitichus  had  built  a  hall,  adjoining  the  temple 
of  Ptah,  the  chief  deity  of  Memphis,  in  which  Apis  was  kept. 
There  were  two  apartments,  from  one  of  which  to  the  other  he 
passed,  and  in  the  front  a  magnificent  peristyle  court,  supported 

1  Herod.  3,  28. 

2  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  observes  that  the  figures  of  Apis  found  in  Egypt  show 
that  it  was  a  vulture,  not  an  eagle,  which  was  marked  on  the  back  of  Apis. 
(M.  and  C.  4,  349.) 

8  Diodorus  says  that  for  forty  days  women  only  were  allowed  to  see  him, 
who  stood  before  him,  dvacrvpa^tvai.  (1,  85.) 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


19 


instead  of  the  usual  columns  by  caryatides  twelve  cubits  in  height 
His  food  was  selected  with  the  greatest  care,  and  lest  in  his  state 
of  confinement  he  should  grow  too  fat,  they  abstained  from  giving 
him  the  water  of  the  Nile  to  drink.  In  Strabo's  time  he  was 
brought  forth  into  his  court  to  exhibit  himself  to  curious  strangers  ; 
in  earlier  times  it  is  not  probable  that  he  was  exposed  to  view 
except  on  solemn  festivals,  when  he  was  led  through  the  city  in 
procession.  Various  modes  of  divination  were  practised  by  means 
of  Apis ;  it  was  a  good  omen  if  he  took  food  readily  from 
those  who  offered  it  to  him  ;  but  evil  threatened  them  if  he  refused 
it.  Public  prosperity  or  calamity  was  portended  by  his  entering 
one  or  the  other  of  his  two  apartments.  There  were  other  methods 
which  they  employed  to  obtain  a  more  specific  knowledge  of  the 
future  by  his  means.  The  children  who  walked  before  him  in  the 
public  procession  were  supposed  to  acquire  from  his  breath  a  gift 
of  prophecy.  Those  who  consulted  him  closed  their  ears  after  they 
had  propounded  their  question  till  they  had  quitted  the  precincts 
of  his  temple,  and  the  first  words  which  they  heard  when  they 
opened  them  again  were  the  answer  of  the  god  to  their  inquiry. 
He  was  not  allowed  to  live  beyond  a  certain  age,  twenty-five  years 
according  to  Plutarch,  when  he  was  secretly  drowned1.  Whether 
he  died  by  the  course  of  nature  or  by  violence,  his  death  was  a 
season  of  general  mourning ;  and  his  interment  was  accompanied 
with  most  costly  ceremonies.  The  funerals  of  all  the  sacred  ani- 
mals were  performed  in  later  times,  when  superstition  had  reached 
its  height,  with  a  magnificence  which  sometimes  proved  ruinous  to 
the  fortunes  of  the  curators ;  but  that  of  Apis  surpassed  them  all. 
In  the  reign  of  the  first  Ptolemy,  Diodorus  relates,  Apis  having 
died  of  old  age,  they  not  only  expended  on  his  funeral  the  large 
sum  appropriated  to  this  purpose,  but  also  borrowed  fifty  talents 
from  Ptolemy ;  and  in  his  own  time  a  hundred  talents  was  no 
uncommon  sum  to  be  expended  by  the  curators  of  the  sacred  ani- 
1  See  vol  1,  p.  282. 


20 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


mals  on  the  ceremony  of  their  interment.  The  body  of  Apis  was 
afterwards  embalmed,  and  mummies  of  bulls  have  been  found  in 
several  of  the  catacombs ;  near  Abousir  eight  chambers  appear  to 
have  been  filled  with  them1.  The  catacombs  contain  mummies 
also  of  most  of  the  other  animals  which  are  known  to  have  been 
held  sacred  among  the  Egyptians2.  Ihere  are  some  indeed  which 
are  not  specifically  mentioned  as  having  been  held  sacred ;  and 
therefore  it  has  been  thought  that  sanitary,  rather  than  religious 
considerations,  led  to  their  embalmment ;  but  Herodotus  says3  that 
all  the  animals  of  the  country  were  holy — of  course  not  all  every- 
where, but  in  some  part  or  other.  In  regard  to  Apis,  we  are  dis- 
tinctly told  that  the  Egyptians  honored  him  as  an  image  of  the  soul 
of  Osiris*,  and  that  this  soul  was  supposed  to  migrate  from  one  Apis 
to  another  in  succession5.  He  was  therefore  to  the  Egyptians  the 
living  and  visible  representative  of  their  greatest  and  most  univer- 
sally honored  deity.  Even  in  this  case,  it  appears  that  they  did  not 
consider  him  as  the  god,  but  only  as  the  living  shrine  in  which  the 
divine  nature  had  become  incarnate.  It  is  doubtful  whether  in  the 
age  of  Herodotus  their  belief  had  reached  to  this  point  of  exal- 
tation. 

What  was  the  precise  amount  of  veneration  paid  to  the  other 
animals  which  are  ordinarily  said  to  have  been  worshipped  in 
Egypt,  it  is  impossible  to  define,  from  the  loss  of  all  record  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  people  by  means  of  literature.  No  standard  could 
be  correct  for  all  ages  of  the  monarchy,  or  all  minds.  That  it  did 
not  amount  to  a  belief  in  the  divinity  of  the  animal  is  evident  from 
the  case  of  Apis ;  and  between  the  honors  which  he  received,  and 
homage  paid  in  outward  forms  as  to  the  established  symbol  of  divi- 
nity, there  is  room  for  a  long  gradation,  according  to  the  more  or 

1  Pettigrew  on  Mummies,  p.  201. 

3  Sec  the  enumeration  of  them  in  Pettigrew,  p.  178. 

8  Ta  iovra  trtpi  airavra  Ipa  vtvojiiarai  (2,  65). 

4  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  359  B.  ■  Diod.  1,  85. 


ANIMAL  WORSHIP. 


21 


less  enthusiastic  character  of  the  worshipper.  For  centuries  the 
two  great  divisions  of  the  Christian  Church  have  been  unable  to 
agree  in  regard  to  the  true  nature  of  the  use  of  images  in  religion, 
which  one  pronounces  to  be  a  direct  worship,  while  the  other 
declares  it  to  be  merely  an  act  of  reverence,  worship  being  addressed 
exclusively  to  the  supreme  God.  We  see  therefore  how  impossible 
it  is  to  describe,  in  words  of  universal  application,  the  sentiments 
with  which  an  Egyptian  regarded  his  sacred  animals. 

In  itself,  animal  worship  has  nothing  more  irrational  than  the 
worship  which  the  Scythians  paid  to  a  scimitar,  or  the  Romans  to 
a  spear1 ;  but  there  is  more  danger  that  gross  minds  should  con- 
found a  living  than  a  lifeless  symbol  with  the  god  whom  it  repre- 
sented ;  it  affords  more  scope  to  an  anxious  superstition,  in  watch- 
ing«the  indications  of  the  future,  afforded  by  the  actions  and  state 
of  the  consecrated  animal.  Multiplied  as  the  objects  of  this  wor- 
ship were  in  Egypt,  it  met  the  devotee  perpetually,  and  its  power 
was  strengthened  by  the  constant  repetition  of  its  rites.  It  is  of  a 
nature  peculiarly  calculated  to  lay  hold  of  the  feelings  in  early  life, 
and  thus  preoccupy  the  mind  with  superstition,  before  reason  has 
acquired  any  counteractive  power.  The  variety  and  opposition  of 
the  rites  of  different  nomes  and  cities  produced  a  fierce  and  fanati- 
cal hostility  between  the  Egyptians  themselves,  of  which  we  have 
no  example,  among  the  other  nations  of  the  Gentile  world.  Many 
causes  contributed  to  degrade  their  character  to  the  state  to  which 
it  had  been  reduced  in  the  last  age  in  which  their  native  supersti- 
tion remained,  and  which  Christianity  has  done  less  to  raise  than 
for  any  other  civilized  people  which  has  embraced  it ;  but  we  cannot 
hesitate  to  place  animal  worship  among  the  most  efficacious  causes 
of  the  narrowness  and  imbecility  into  which  the  Egyptian  mind 
degenerated. 

1  Herod.  4,  62.    Varro,  Fragm.  1,  p.  375,  ed.  Bipont. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


CONSTITUTION    AND    LAWS   OF  EGYPT. 

In  describing  the  constitution  and  laws  of  Egypt  we  labor  under 
this  difficulty  ; — that  as  the  Egyptians  have  left  us  no  history  of 
their  own,  and  no  code  of  their  laws  has  been  discovered  among 
the  written  remains  which  have  come  to  light,  we  know  not,  except 
by  a  few  doubtful  traditions,  what  changes  they  may  have  under- 
gone. The  fullest  account  is  that  given  by  Diodorus1,  which  he 
professes  to  have  derived  from  the  records  of  the  priests,  and  which 
may  be  considered  as  representing  the  state  of  things  during  that 
period  of  the  native  monarchy  which  succeeded  the  expulsion  of 
the  Hyksos. 

The  whole  of  the  land  of  Egypt  was  possessed  by  the  king,  the 
priests,  and  the  military  order2.  Such  a  possession,  however,  like 
that  of  a  feudal  sovereign  and  aristocracy,  cannot  be  exercised  by 
the  persons  who  claim  it.  The  husbandmen  occupied  the  land 
capable  of  cultivation,  on  payment  of  a  small  rent  or  proportion  of 
the  produce.  It  appears  from  the  Book  of  Genesis,  that  before  the 
time  of  Joseph,  the  mass  of  the  people  had  been  independent  pos- 
sessors of  land,  but  parted  with  their  rights  to  the  crown,  under 
the  pressure  of  continued  famine3.  They  submitted  in  future  to 
pay  a  fifth  part  of  the  produce  to  the  king,  and  were  thus  placed 
n  nearly  the  same  condition  as  the  people  of  India4,  where  all  the 

1  Diod.  1,  70  foil. 

2  Diod.  i,  74.  01  ycwpyoi  fjiiKpov  rivoi  rr)v  tcapTrnipopov  j^topav  tiji  napn  tov  (iam- 
\€ws  toil  Tiov  'icpt'jiv  Kai  rdif  fia^tfiMv  jxtaQoijitvoi  itareXnxjai  tov  airavra  y^povov  neftl  Tijv 
Zpyaaiav  own  TfiS  ^w'as. 

s  Gen.  xlvii.  26.  4  Strabo,  B.  15,  p.  704. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


23 


land  belonged  to  the  king,  but  was  farmed  on  condition  of  paying 
him  a  fourth  part  of  the  produce.  The  priests  are  expressly  men- 
tioned as  retaining  their  property1 ;  of  the  military  order  nothing 
is  said,  but  from  analogy  we  should  conclude  that  they  also  retained 
their  rights,  or  speedily  recovered  them,  as  the  account  of  Diodorus 
before  quoted  implies.  After  the  change  of  tenure,  the  proportion 
of  the  produce  did  not  exceed  what  had  been  taken  by  an  act  of 
power  in  the  seven  years  of  plenty2.  Even  after  this  annihilation 
of  the  rights  of  landed  property,  the  condition  of  the  peasantry  in 
Egypt  was  better  than  in  India,  and  not  very  different  from  that 
of  the  agricultural  tenant  among  ourselves  ;  for  it  appears  from  the 
evidence  given  before  the  Committees  on  the  Corn  Laws  in  1814 
and  1821,  that  rent  is  usually  about  a  fourth  part  of  the  produce3. 

It  is  probable  that  the  priests  occupied  a  portion  of  their  own 
land,  and  cultivated  it  by  their  hired  laborers,  as  we  know  the 
military  class  did.  Diodorus,  speaking  of  the  different  classes  and 
occupations  of  Athens,  says,  "  The  second  class  was  that  of  the 
geomoroi,  whose  duty  it  was  to  possess  arms  and  serve  in  war  on 
behalf  of  the  city,  like  those  who  are  called  husbandmen  in  Egypt, 
and  who  furnish  the  righting  men4."  Now  as  the  continued  and 
personal  cultivation  of  the  soil  would  be  inconsistent  with  military 
duty,  we  must  suppose  that  at  least  that  portion  of  the  warrior 
caste  which  was  in  actual  service,  tilled  their  lands  by  hired  labor- 
ers. Herodotus  appears  also  to  have  included  the  possessors  of 
land  among  the  priests  and  the  warrior  caste,  as  he  makes  no  men- 
tion of  husbandmen  among  his  seven  classes. 

1  Gen.  xlvii.  26.  "Joseph  made  it  a  law  over  the  land  of  Egypt  unto  this 
day,  that  Pharaoh  should  have  the  fifth  part ;  except  the  land  of  the  priests 
only,  which  became  not  Pharaoh's." 

2  Gen.  xli.  34.  "Let  Pharaoh  do  this,  let  him  appoint  officers  over  the 
land,  and  take  up  the  fifth  part  of  the  land  of  Egypt  in  the  seven  plenteous 
years." 

8  Itickards  on  India,  vol  1,  p.  288  note.         •  4  Diod.  1,  28. 


24 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


The  king,  the  priest,  and  the  warrior  were  the  privileged  orders 
of  Egypt ;  the  rest1,  including  the  herdsmen  of  swine  and  cattle, 
the  artificers,  the  retail  traders,  the  boatmen  and  pilots,  and  in  later 
times  the  interpreters,  were  excluded  from  all  share  of  political 
power.  Yet  there  prevailed  in  Egypt  no  notion  of  an  aristocracy  of 
descent ;  the  priest  and  the  warrior  were  honored  on  account  of  the 
higher  functions  which  their  birth  assigned  them,  but  not  for  a  patri- 
cian genealogy.  In  the  funeral  encomium  no  mention  was  made 
of  descent,  all  Egyptians  being  considered  as  equally  well-born2. 

Hereditary  succession  appears  to  have  been  the  rule  of  the 
Egyptian  monarchy.  Diodorus  says  (1,  43),  that  in  ancient  times, 
according  to  the  accounts  which  he  received,  kings  were  chosen  for 
public  services,  but  this  occurs  in  a  part  of  the  history  in  which  he 
is  tracing  the  progress  of  society  evidently  according  to  a  theory. 
In  many  instances  a  sovereign  is  expressly  said  to  have  been  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son ;  on  the  monuments  a  king  sometimes  declares 
himself  to  be  the  son  of  his  predecessor,  and  is  found  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  his  reign  in  the  character  of  a  prince  of  the  blood,  serving 
in  the  army  or  attending  at  a  solemnity3.  Females  were  not 
excluded  from  the  throne;  a  queen  Nitocris  occurs  in  the  sixth 
dynasty,  Scemiophris  in  the  twelfth,  and  other  examples  are  found 
in  the  sculptures4.  If  it  were  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  elec- 
tion, the  king  must  be  chosen  from  the  priests  or  the  soldiers; 
Amasis  was  a  plebeian,  and  was  on  that  account  despised,  but  the 
monarchy  was  then  approaching  its  termination.  According  to  a 
late  authority  (Synesius5),  the  form  of  election  represented  all  the 

1  Strabo,  B.  11,  p.  78*7.  Plato,  Tim.  iii.  24.  Isoerates,  Busiris,  p.  161,  ed, 
Battie,  arrange  them  variously.  Herodotus,  2,  164,  reckons  priests,  war- 
riors, herdsmen,  swineherds,  tradesmen,  interpreters,  steersmen. 

2  Diod.  1,  92.  Vol.  1,  p.  419. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  283 ;  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  351. 

4  Rosellini,  M.  St.  iii.  1,  129.  Comp.  Lucan,  Phars.  10,  92. 
0  Quoted  by  Heeren,  Ideen,  2,  p.  335,  Germ. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


25 


elements  of  the  community.  The  priests  stood  immediately  around 
the  candidates,  then  the  warriors,  and  outside  of  all  the  people- 
But  the  priests  possessed  great  prerogatives  in  voting ;  the  suffrage 
of  a  prophetes  counted  for  a  hundred,  that  of  a  comastes1  (one  who 
carried  the  sacred  images  in  processions)  for  twenty,  that  of  a  neo- 
coros*  for  ten,  while  that  of  a  warrior  counted  but  for  one.  The 
common  people  probably  enjoyed  the  same  right  as  in  the  middle 
ages — that  of  approving  by  their  acclamations  the  choice  of  the 
clergy  and  the  military  chiefs.  If  the  election  fell  upon  a  soldier, 
he  was  admitted  into  the  sacerdotal  order,  and  made  acquainted 
with  their  hidden  wisdom3.  This  initiation  is  perhaps  represented 
in  monuments,  where  the  lau,  the  emblem  of  life  and  key  of  mys- 
teries, is  placed  on  the  lips  of  the  king4.  To  the  shields  of  some  of 
the  early  kings  the  word  "  priest"  is  prefixed5. 

The  monarch  was  so  entirely  under  the  influence  and  control  of 
the  priests,  that  the  hierarchy  may  be  considered  as  in  fact  the 
governing  body  in  ordinary  times.  Unlike  the  sovereigns  of  the 
East,  he  was  not  irresponsible  master  of  his  own  actions.  The 
forms  of  public  business  and  even  his  daily  habits  of  life  were  sub- 
ject to  strict  regulation.  "  It  was  his  duty,"  says  Diodorus,  "  when 
he  rose  in  the  early  morning,  first  of  all  to  read  the  letters  sent 
from  all  parts,  that  he  might  transact  all  business  with  accurate 
knowledge  of  what  was  being  done  everywhere  in  his  kingdom. 
Having  bathed  and  arrayed  himself  in  splendid  robes  and  the  insig- 

1  Clem.  Alex.  5,  p.  671,  Pott.  2  Vol.  1,  p.  379. 

3  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  354  B ;  Plat.  Polit.  ii.  290.  Steph.  'Eat/  TvXn  *p6repov 
t|  a\\ov  yevovs  Qiaaaptvos,  varepov  dvayKaiov  is  tovto  eioreXeicrOai.  Plut.  Is.  et 
Osir.  C.  6.  01  PoutiXeTs  Kal  ficrprirdv  enivov  sk  t&v  lep&v  ypa/jL/iaTUiv,  wff  'EicaTaTot 
l(TTopfiKei>y  iepeig  Svres. 

4  Hieroglyphics  of  Egyptian  Soc.  pi.  94. 

6  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  281.    The  shield  of  a  king  whose  name  is  lost, 
in  the  papyrus  of  Turin,  but  who  belonged  apparently  to  the  Sebekotphs, 
has  a  group  of  characters  annexed  to  it,  which  have  been  read  "chosen  by 
the  soldiers."  (Lesueur,  Chronologic,  pp.  236,  321.) 
VOL.  II.  2 


26 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


nia  of  sovereignty,  he  sacrificed  to  the  God1.  The  victims  being 
placed  beside  the  altar,  the  high-priest  standing  near  the  king 
prayed  with  a  loud  voice,  the  people  standing  round,  that  the  gods 
would  give  health  and  all  other  blessings  to  the  king,  he  observing 
justice  towards  his  subjects.  It  was  the  priest's  office  also  to  declare 
his  several  virtues,  saying  that  he  showed  piety  towards  the  gods 
and  clemency  towards  men ;  that  he  was  temperate  and  magnani- 
mous, truthful  and  liberal,  and  master  of  all  his  passions ;  that  he 
inflicted  on  offenders  punishments  lighter  than  their  misdeeds 
deserved,  and  repaid  benefits  with  more  than  a  proportionate  return. 
After  many  similar  prayers  the  priest  pronounced  an  imprecation 
respecting  things  done  in  ignorance,  exempting  the  king  from  all 
accusation,  and  fixing  the  injury  and  the  penalty  on  those  who  had 
been  his  ministers  and  had  wrongfully  instructed  him."  His  plea- 
sures and  his  exercise,  the  quality  of  his  food,  the  quantity  of  his 
wine,  were  all  prescribed  by  a  minute  ceremonial,  contained  in  one 
of  the  Books  of  Hermes2.  He  was  not  allowed  to  be  attended  by 
slaves ;  sons  of  the  priests,  carefully  educated  till  the  age  of  twenty, 
surrounded  his  person  night  and  day.  The  hierogrammat  or  sacred 
scribe  then  read  from  the  sacred  books  precepts  and  histories  of 
eminent  men  calculated  to  inspire  the  monarch  with  the  love  of 
virtue.  His  power  over  the  lives  and  properties  of  his  subjects  was 
strictly  limited  by  law,  and  nothing  left  to  caprice  and  passion3. 
The  right  to  enact  new  laws,  however,  resided  with  the  sovereign : 
Menes  and  Sasyches,  Sesostris,  Bocchoris  and  Amasis  are  all  cele- 
brated as  legislators4.  The  king  was  also  a  judge  in  certain  cases 
which  are  not  defined  ;  but  the  ordinary  administration  of  justice 
was  lost  to  the  tribunals.    A  singular  kind  of  posthumous  judge- 

1  We  find  accordingly  in  the  monuments  the  king  leading  processions, 
pouring  libations,  dedicating  temples,  presenting  offerings,  and  with  his  own 
hand  sacrificing  victims. 

9  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  6,  4,  p.  151,  ed.  Potter. 

•  Diod.  1,  70,  11.  4  Diod.  1,  94. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


27 


ment  was  exercised  on  his  government  and  character.  Before  the 
embalmed  body  was  placed  in  the  sepulchre,  any  one  who  had  an 
accusation  to  prefer  against  him  was  allowed  to  bring  it  forward  ; 
while  the  priests  set  forth  his  merits,  and  the  people  by  their  mur- 
murs or  applause  decided  whether  he  should  be  allowed  the  honor 
of  sepulture  or  not.  Diodorus  assures  us  that  there  were  many 
instances  of  its  being  withheld1.  On  the  other  hand,  an  eminently 
virtuous  and  popular  prince  received  a  kind  of  deification.  Acts 
of  homage  were  performed  to  him  in  subsequent  generations,  and 
his  name  was  inscribed  as  a  charm  on  amulets2. 

The  account  which  Diodorus  gives  of  the  influence  of  these  laws 
and  customs  in  producing  virtue  and  moderation  in  the  kings  of 
Egypt,  must  be  regarded  as  describing  rather  the  effect  designed 
than  the  invariable  result.  The  Jewish  Lawgiver  prescribed  that 
each  sovereign  should  make  a  copy  of  the  Law,  "  that  it  might  be 
with  him,  that  he  might  read  therein  all  the  days  of  his  life,  and 
learn  to  fear  Jehovah  his  God,  to  keep  all  the  words  of  the  law  and 
to  do  them3 ;"  yet  it  is  doubtful  if  a  single  king  of  Israel  or  Judah 
complied  with  this  injunction,  and  it  is  certain  that  even  the  living 
voice  of  the  prophets  was  unable  to  prevent  them  from  "  lifting  up 
their  hearts  above  their  brethren,  and  turning  aside  from  the  com- 
mandments." The  daily  homily  read  to  the  Egyptian  monarchs  on 
the  duties  of  sovereignty  would  degenerate  into  a  form.  The  praises 
bestowed  in  public  prayers  on  the  virtues  of  a  reigning  sovereign  are 
mere  customary  complimenti.  The  details  of  Egyptian  history 
exhibit  instances  of  tyranny  ;  and  a  king  who  could  command  the 
military  power  might  break  through  the  restraints  of  morality  and 
religion.  In  both  cases,  however,  it  would  be  unjust  to  deny  to  the 
legislation  the  merit  of  a  noble  aim,  in  framing  a  standard  of  duty 
for  the  sovereign,  and  providing  the  means  of  its  being  constantly 
held  up  before  his  eyes.    The  failure  to  produce  conformity  with  the 

1  Diod  1,  72,  ad  Jin.  aRosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  3,  79-84. 

•  Deut.  xvii.  18. 


28 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


standard  belongs  to  all  codes,  ethical  or  political.  Yet  the  general 
testimony  of  antiquity  affirms  that  Egypt  was  distinguished  among 
ancient  nations,  not  only  for  the  wisdom  of  its  laws,  but  the  obe- 
dience paid  to  them.  The  instances  of  internal  revolution  are  few 
and  late.  After  we  have  retrenched  some  thousand  years  from  its 
history,  for  false  and  exaggerated  chronology,  the  long  duration  of 
the  monarchy  remains  unexampled.  The  union  of  priestly  sanc- 
tity, military  power  and  monarchical  authority  in  one  person,  gave 
the  government  a  form  of  stability  which  could  not  belong  to  forms 
of  polity  in  which  these  powers  were  dissociated  or  hostile.  At 
the  same  time  the  influence  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  who  were 
almost  the  sole  possessors  of  knowledge,  stamped  it  with  a  charac- 
ter of  mildness  and  humanity,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  influence 
of  the  Church  tempered  the  rigor  of  feudalism.  It  substituted 
religious  awe  for  constitutional  checks  and  sanctions  in  the  mind 
of  the  monarch,  and  by  this  sentiment  more  effectually  controlled 
him,  as  long  as  religion  and  its  ministers  were  respected.  Had 
the  authority  been  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,  it  might 
have  sunk  into  that  imbecility  to  which  a  purely  sacerdotal  admi- 
nistration tends  ;  but  the  intimate  union  of  the  civil  power,  the  mili- 
tary and  the  hierarchy,  appears  to  have  secured  to  the  people  a 
government  at  once  energetic,  enlightened  and  humane. 

The  earliest  account  remaining  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy,  in  the 
history  of  Joseph,  exhibits  a  court  and  household  with  minute  gra- 
dations of  rank  and  function,  and  the  monuments  have  added  a 
long  list  of  officers,  who  ministered  to  the  state  and  luxury  of  the 
sovereign.  The  king  always  appears  surrounded  by  numerous 
military  and  sacerdotal  attendants.  Men  of  high  rank,  and  even 
princes  of  the  blood,  formed  his  train,  screening  him  from  the  heat, 
or  cooling  him  and  chasing  away  the  flies  with  a  feather-fan. 
Besides  these  personal  attendants  on  the  sovereign,  there  was  a 
numerous  body  of  public  functionaries,  whose  titles  and  duties  have 
been  revealed  to  us  by  the  inscriptions  in  their  tombs.    They  show 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


29 


that  the  government  was  thoroughly  organized  in  its  administrative 
department,  no  branch  of  public  service  being  without  its  chief. 
The  extent  and  magnificence  of  the  palaces  of  Thebes  attest  the 
splendor  in  which  the  monarch  lived ;  but  as  the  royal  state  was 
kept  up  and  the  expenditure  in  peace  and  war  maintained  out  of 
the  produce  of  the  land,  a  third  of  which  was  allotted  to  the  ting, 
the  people  do  not  appear  to  have  been  heavily  taxed,  if  at  all,  in 
the  ordinary  course  of  affairs1.  It  is  not  probable,  however,  that 
such  works  as  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid  could  be  carried 
on,  without  levying  oppressive  taxes,  as  well  as  exacting  forced 
labor,  and  the  sovereigns  who  engaged  in  them  were  the  objects 
of  popular  detestation2.  The  military  expeditions  would  in  modern 
times  have  been  the  cause  of  enormous  expense ;  but  ancient  war- 
fare supported  itself  by  plunder  and  exaction,  and  large  tributes 
were  paid  by  conquered  nations. 

Nowhere  in  the  ancient  world  was  the  number  of  temples  so 
great  as  in  Egypt,  nor  the  revenue  of  the  priests  so  ample,  nor 
their  influence  in  the  whole  social  system  so  predominant.  Ail  the 
events  of  Egyptian  life  were  intimately  blended  with  religion,  and 
a  series  of  festivals  spread  itself  over  the  whole  year.  Every  nome 
had  a  tutelary  god,  whom  it  worshipped  with  especial  honor ; 
every  city  and  town  one  or  more  temples.  The  Egyptians  were 
the  authors,  as  the  Greeks  believed3,  both  of  the  doctrines  and  the 
ritual  of  polytheism,  and  had  carried  both  to  the  utmost  limits  of 
refinement  and  subdivision.    The  priests  lived  in  abundance  and 

1  The  TrpocoSoi  and  iwoforf  which  Herodotus  (2,  109)  speaks  of  as  imposed 
by  Sesostris  in  proportion  to  the  land,  appear  to  be  only  the  rent  for  the 
crown  lands  under  another  name.     I'avs  ii  tor?  ,  Sia       ix  rS»  vpoaohmv  evno- 

ptaVj  oil  0anri$ovGt  rais  eiafjpaii.     (Diod.  1,  73.) 

1  Herod.  2,  128. 

'  Herod.  2,  50.  H%c6dv  iravra  ra  ovvSpara  rwv  9cwv  c£  Aiyvirrov  cXrjXvde  is  rrjf 
'EXXdJa.  58.  HavrjyvpiS  apa  Kai  tto^ttos  *ai  vpooayuiyas  izpojroi  dvdpwwwv  AiyvsTiot 
eiai  oi  voirfadfisvoi. 


30 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


luxury.  The  portion  of  the  soil  allotted  to  them,  the  largest  in 
the  threefold  division1,  was  subject  to  no  taxes2 ;  and  they  were  so 
abundantly  supplied  with  the  means  of  subsistence  that  it  was 
unnecessary  for  them  to  expend  their  private  property3.  The 
registers  of  the  temples,  of  which  some  fragments  have  been  pre- 
served, show  that  contributions  of  various  kinds  were  made  to 
them,  though  they  are  not  sufficiently  precise  to  enable  us  to  say 
whether  they  were  dues  or  voluntary  offerings.  Their  life4  was  the 
reverse  of  ascetic.  The  shaving  of  the  head  and  body  every  other 
day,  the  cold  ablution  twice  in  every  day  and  twice  in  every  night, 
the  use  of  flax  and  papyrus  instead  of  woollen  and  leather6,  in  the 
climate  of  Egypt  were  luxuries,  not  penances  and  restrictions. 
The  endless  variety  of  rites  which  they  practised6  served  to  fill  up 
their  time,  for  which  the  majority  of  them,  not  being  initiated  into 
science,  would  have  little  occupation.  Their  numbers  were  very 
great ;  instead  of  a  single  priest  or  priestess  attached  to  each 
temple,  as  among  the  Greeks,  a  long  series  of  subordinate  minis- 
ters discharged  those  multiplied  functions  in  which  their  religion 
consisted.  Herodotus  declares  that  no  female  could  fill  a  sacer- 
dotal office7,  though  it  is  evident  from  his  own  accounts,  as  well  as 

1  Diod. 

a  This  appears  not  to  have  been  the  case  in  the  Ptolemaic  times.  See 
the  Inscription  of  Rosetta,  in  which  the  priests  return  thanks  to  the  king 
for  decreeing  that  they  should  pay  no  more  than  in  the  first  year  of  his 
father's  reign.    (Line  16  of  the  Greek.) 

1  Herod.  2,  37. 

4  Occasionally  they  practised  rigid  abstinence  (£i>  rats  ayveiais),  and  did 
not  even  allow  themselves  salt  as  a  provocative  of  appetite.  (Plut  Is.  et 
Osir.  p.  352.) 

5  Herod.  2,  37. 

6  "AVX«s  Gnrivkias  iirire\eov<ri  iivoiag  cL?  riireiv  \6yu>.     (Her.  ibid.) 

1  Herod.  2,  35.     '\piirat  yvvi]  jtiv  oviefiia  ovre  ipacvog  Btvv  ovre  OtjXirjg.     But  hd 

himself  (2,  55)  speaks  of  a  femal«  as  dt  <pnro\ev  aav  Ipdv  Atdj.  See  vol.  i  p. 
379. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


31 


from  the  sculptures  and  documents1,  that  they  might  be  engaged 
in  duties  connected  with  the  temples2.  The  office  was  strictly- 
hereditary.  In  the  temples  of  the  principal  gods  there  was  a  high- 
priest,  and  if  we  take  literally  the  statement  made  by  the  priests 
of  Vulcan  to  Hecataeus  and  Herodotus,  the  son  had  succeeded  to 
the  father  for  340  generations3.  To  the  priests  alone  polygamy 
was  forbidden4,  and  this  restriction  is  confirmed  by  the  monuments. 

The  reverence  in  which  the  sacerdotal  order  was  held  was  not 
the  result  of  their  sacred  character  only,  but  of  their  superior 
knowledge  and  education,  which  comprehended,  besides  divination 
and  augury,  all  the  human  sciences.  Their  superior  skill  in  geo- 
metry and  arithmetic,  so  important  in  a  country  whose  revenues 
were  raised  by  a  tax  on  land  proportioned  to  its  extent6,  and  where 
changes  in  the  form  and  area  of  the  fields  were  frequently  pro- 
duced by  the  action  of  the  river,  gave  them  a  considerable  control 
over  property. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  practice  of  medicine  was  confined  to 
them.  The  army  was  attended  by  physicians6,  who  can  scarcely 
have  been  priests.  The  general  appearance  and  costume  of  the 
physicians  represented  in  the  grottos  of  Benihassan7  would  lead 

1  Champollion-Figeae,  Egypte,  L'Univers  Pittoresque,  115. 

*  The  priestesses  mentioned  in  the  Rosetta  Stone  belonged  to  the  worship 
of  the  deified  Ptolemies,  not  the  ancient  gods  of  Egypt. 

3  Herod.  2,  143,  where  however  a-ndciKwaav  naioa  irarpos  ZKaarov  ccjvtuv 
itvra  can  hardly  express  a  literal  fact,  especially  if  we  consider  the  mono- 
gamy of  the  priests.  Compare  Her.  1,  7,  where  a  similar  expression  only 
denotes  generally  an  hereditary  succession. 

*  Diod.  1,  80.    Comp.  Her.  2,  92. 

6  Herod.  2,  109.  El  TlVOg  TOV  K^rjpov  b  TTOTdflOf  tc  irapc\otTof  i\6u)V  av  irpds  TOP 
BaaiXia  iartjiame  to  ytycvr\p.tvov'  b  6e  £T£/jrre  roif  iiziOKtrpojiivovg  ical  avafitrpfjo-ovTag 
o'fffj  i\aa<ru)v  b  X^pof   ytyoie,  SkcoS  tov  \oittov  Kara  \6yov  rrjs  TCrayfiEfrjS  dvoQoprjg 

Tt\t:>l. 

6  Diod.  2,  82. 

7  See  vol.  i.  p.  290.    Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  3,  398. 


32 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


us  to  refer  them  to  a  low  rank  in  society.  No  sepulchral  inscrip- 
tion has  yet  been  found  in  which  this  profession  is  mentioned,  nor 
has  the  hieroglyphic  character  for  physician  been  ascertained. 
The  embalmers  were  a  part  of  the  physicians1,  but  the  priests, 
whose  profession  required  such  scrupulous  purity,  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  have  defiled  themselves  with  the  touch  of  dead  bodies  ; 
and  the  embalmers  are  expressly  said  by  Herodotus2  to  have  been 
artisans  who  plied  in  public.  But  all  medical  practice  was  carried  i 
on  in  Egypt  according  to  certain  established  formulas,  contained 
in  ancient  books.  Six  of  the  forty-two  treatises  attributed  to 
Hermes  were  devoted  to  medicine,  and  the  pastophori,  a  special 
but  inferior  order  of  the  priests,  studied  them3.  To  the  precepts 
contained  in  these  books  the  practitioners  of  medicine  seem  to 
have  been  obliged  to  conform,  and  thus  the  sacerdotal  order  would 
possess  a  complete  control  over  the  practical  branches  of  the  art. 
So  under  the  Jewish  Law,  the  Levites  had  to  decide  on  all  medical 
questions  which  had  a  bearing  on  religion4,  such  as  leprosy,  but  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  in  other  respects  the  physicians  of  the 
people.  In  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  the  knowledge  of 
medicine  was  nearly  confined  to  the  clergy,  if  we  except  the  Jews 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  leeches  who  practised  upon  the  vulgar 
on  the  other.  The  selection  and  examination  of  victims,  the  care 
o:'  the  sacred  animals,  the  rigorous  attention  to  their  own  health 
and  purity  which  their  oflSce  imposed,  could  not  fail  to  give  the 
Egyptian  priests  a  considerable  portion  of  medicinal  knowledge, 
besides  what  the  books  of  Hermes  contained. 

The  more  mysterious  doctrines  of  religion,  as  well  as  the  know- 
ledge of  the  hieroglyphic  character,  in  later  times  were  reserved  to 
the  higher  order  of  the  priesthood5,  and  this  was  probably  always 

1  Gen.  1.  2. 

2  Herod.  2,  86.     Et'ffi  SI  oi  irr'  avrcj  rourcj  k  ar  e  ar  a  i  Kat  rt-^yr\v  l-^ovoi  ravTrjv, 

*  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  6,  4,  p.  758,  ed.  Pott.  4  See  Leviticus,  xiii.  xiv. 
6  Clem.  Alex.  Strom.  5,  p.  670,  Pott      Ov  tois  eititvxovoi  dveridevTo  ra  pva- 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


33 


the  case,  the  functions  of  the  lower  ministers  being  of  a  practical 
kind. 

According  to  ^Elian1,  the  priests  were  originally  judges,  the 
eldest  of  them  presiding.  This  appears  afterwards  to  have  given 
place  to  a  select  tribunal  which  we  shall  subsequently  describe. 
But  as  the  ultimate  authority  must  be  the  written  law,  and  as 
literature  of  every  kind  was  in  the  custody  of  the  priesthood,  it  is 
probable  that  questions  of  nice  interpretation  would  be  referred  to 
them.  So  among  the  Jews,  when  a  matter  arose  too  hard  for  the 
decision  of  the  inferior  judges,  recourse  was  had  to  the  priests  and 
Levites  and  the  chief  judge  in  the  last  resort2.  In  Europe  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  highest  offices  of  the  law  were  filled  by  ecclesias- 
tics, who  alone  could  read  ancient  writings  and  pen  decrees.  Sta- 
tistical knowledge  was  carried  to  greater  perfection  in  Egypt  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  ancient  world.  The  whole  country  had  been 
geometrically  measured  ;  every  man's  tax  was  fixed,  every  man's 
occupation  known3,  and  the  topography  of  Egypt  was  the  subject 
of  one  of  the  sacred  books4. 

The  military  class  formed,  like  the  priesthood,  an  hereditary 
caste5.  They  were  divided  into  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians, 
names  the  signification  of  which  has  not  been  ascertained6.  Aecor- 

rfipia  dW  1)  fjidvois  y£  toi$  ^eXAovtri  cnl  /JacrtXtt'aj/  npo'Cevai  teal  tCjv  lepewv  tois  KpiBtXaiv 

sivai  ioKifLtaraTots. 

•  1  ^Elian.  Var.  Hist,  14,  34. 

a  Deut.  xvii.  8.  "  If  there  arise  a  matter  too  hard  for  thee  in  judgment, 
then  shalt  thou  arise  and  get  thee  up  into  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  shall  choose,  and  thou  shalt  come  unto  the  priests,  the  Levites,  and  the 
judge  that  shall  be  in  those  days,  and  inquire,  and  they  shall  show  thee  the 
sentence  of  judgment." 

3  Herod.  2,  177.    He  refers  the  law  to  the  reign  of  Amasis. 
*  Clem  Alex,  ubi  supra. 
6  Herod.  2,  166. 

6  Jablonsky  (Voc.  ^Egypt.  p.  69,  101.)  deduces  Calasiris  from  Hehhiri, 
Coptic  for  youth ;  Herrnotybian,  from  armatoi  oube,  militare  contra,  and  ha 

2* 


34 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


ding  to  Herodotus,  the  Calasirians  amounted,  when  their  numbers 
were  largest,  to  250,000  men,  the  Hermotybians  to  160,000;  and 
if  larger  numbers  are  attributed  to  some  of  the  armies  of  Egyptian 
conquerors,  we  must  remember  that  oriental  armies  are  swollen  by 
a  train  of  unmilitary  followers.  Each  soldier  had  an  allotment  of 
land,  of  about  six  acres,  free  from  taxes.  Their  settlements  were 
almost  exclusively  in  Lower  Egypt1,  each  body  having  only  one  in 
either  Middle  or  Upper  Egypt,  namely  the  nomes  of  Chemmiss 
and  Thebes,  while  the  Hermotybians  were  established  in  five 
nomes  of  Lower  Egypt  and  the  Calasirians  in  eleven2.  It  was  on 
the  side  of  Asia  that  the  country  was  most  exposed  to  attack, 
Nubia  having  been  completely  subjugated  during  the  flourishing 
times  of  the  monarchy ;  and  the  abundance  and  fertility  of  land 
in  the  Delta  pointed  out  this  as  the  part  most  suitable  for  the 
settlement  of  the  soldiery.  The  facility  with  which  a  large  force 
was  collected  for  the  pursuit  of  the  Israelites3,  shows  that  they 
must  have  been  quartered  chiefly  in  Lower  Egypt.  All  handicrafts 
were  forbidden  to  them,  but  in  these  agriculture  was  not  included, 
which  was  an  honorable  occupation  even  among  those  by  whom 
the  mechanical  arts  were  most  despised4.  In  times  of  peace,  a 
portion  of  them  discharged  garrison-duty  in  the  frontier  towns  of 
Pelusium,  Marea  and  Elephantine ;  a  detachment  to  the  number 
of  a  thousand  of  each  acted  as  guards  to  the  king,  during  the  space 
of  a  year5.  To  these  were  given,  as  a  daily  allowance,  five  minae 
of  baked  bread  or  parched  corn,  two  minae  of  beef  and  four  arys- 
ters,  or  nearly  two  pints,  of  wine.  In  the  Egyptian  monuments 
we  can  distinguish  such  a  body  of  men  having  peculiar  arms, 
clothing  and  ensigns,  and  specially  engaged  in  attendance  on  the 

supposes  the  latter  to  have  been  veterans  to  whom  the  defence  of  the  coun- 
try was  chiefly  entrusted. 

1  Heeren,  2,  134.    (2,  2,  51$  Germ.) 

9  Herod,  ubi  supra.  4  Exod.  xiv.  5-9. 

4  Diod.  1,  28.  6  Her.  2,  168. 


CONSTITUTION   AND  LAWS. 


35 


king1.  Perhaps  other  bodies  might  be  stationed  in  some  of  the 
principal  towns,  where  it  has  been  thought  that  traces  of  fortified 
camps  might  be  perceived2. 

Such  a  class,  trained  and  armed  and  possessed  of  property  in 
land,  in  the  midst  of  a  population  of  priests,  agriculturists  and 
tradesmen,  must  have  had  a  preponderant  weight  in  the  social 
scale.  Yet  such  was  the  harmony  of  the  different  members  of  the 
Egyptian  state,  that  we  hear  for  many  centuries  of  no  usurpations 
or  rebellions  by  the  soldiery.  The  military  order  was  closely  united 
with  the  monarchy.  We  find  in  the  monuments  that  the  sons  of 
the  kings  held  high  posts  in  the  army3,  and  this  class  generally 
furnished  a  sovereign  to  the  vacant  throne.  The  Egyptian  military 
system,  as  it  originally  existed,  was  better  calculated  to  preserve 
order  within  the  state  and  resist  aggression,  than  the  feudalism 
of  the  Middle  Ages  or  the  universal  soldiership  of  the  Greeks. 
The  former  was  an  instrument  of  oppression,  the  latter  a  constant 
provocative  to  civil  war.  Egypt  more  resembled  Rome,  in  the  ages 
in  which  the  plebs  was  still  devoted  exclusively  to  agriculture  and 
furnished  legionaries  to  the  army.  The  commencement  of  her  fall 
was  the  encroachment  made  by  the  priests  in  the  reign  of  Sethos, 
and  the  king  in  that  of  Psammitichus,  on  the  privileges  of  the  mili- 
tary class. 

All  the  rest  of  the  population  may  be  regarded  as  forming  one 
class,  inasmuch  as  they  were  excluded  from  the  possession  of  land, 
from  the  privileges  of  the  priestly  and  military  order,  and  from 
every  department  of  political  life.  Among  themselves,  however, 
they  were  divided  into  a  variety  of  trades  and  professions,  about 
the  number  of  which  the  ancients  are  not  agreed,  nor  is  it  proba- 
ble that  any  one  has  enumerated  them  all.  The  land  was  culti- 
vated by  a  peasantry,  tenants  to  the  king,  the  priests  and  the  war- 

1  Rosellini,  Monuraenti  Reali,  tav.  c.  ciL  cxxvL 
a  Champollion-Figeac,  Egypte,  p.  147. 
*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civili,  3,  p.  313. 


30 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


riors,  whose  traditionary  knowledge  and  early  training  enabled 
tliein  to  carry  the  art  to  a  much  higher  degree  of  perfection  than 
any  other  nation1.  The  marshy  districts  of  the  Delta  and  the  pas- 
tures of  the  valleys,  especially  of  the  Arabian  chain  of  hills,  main- 
tained large  numbers  of  cattle,  the  charge  of  which  created  another 
distinct  class.  The  swineherds  formed  another — a  Pariah-caste — 
to  whom  alone,  of  all  the  Egyptians,  access  to  the  temples  was 
denied,  and  who  could  only  intermarry  among  themselves2.  The 
artificers  and  the  boatmen  and  steersmen  of  the  Nile  were  each  a 
separate  class.  The  monuments  lead  us  to  conclude  that  the  navi- 
gation of  the  sea  was  more  common  than  had  been  previously  sup- 
posed, yet  it  hardly  belonged  to  the  habits  of  the  nation  and  was 
opposed  to  its  religious  ideas,  according  to  which  the  sea-water, 
swallowing  up  the  Xile,  was  symbolized  in  Typhon  destroying 
Osiris.  Even  the  navigators  of  the  river  were  a  disesteemed  race3. 
Huntsmen  are  mentioned  in  the  enumeration  of  Plato,  among 
whom  fowlers  would  be  included4 ;  in  a  country  so  abundant  in 
streams  and  fish,  fishermen  must  have  been  very  numerous5,  and 
therefore  probably  a  distinct  class.  On  the  establishment  of  the 
Greeks  in  Egypt,  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus,  an  hereditary 
body  of  interpreters  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  commercial 
intercourse6,  this  being  the  only  one  of  whose  origin  we  have  any 
historical  account,  and  we  see  that  neither  conquest  nor  religion 
had  anything  to  do  with  it,  but  the  hereditary  transmission  of 
exclusive  knowledge. 

1  Diodor.  1,  74. 

2  Herod.  2,  47.  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  1,  266,  mentions  a  herd  of  swine 
belonging  to  a  priest ;  they  were  sometimes  used  in  sacrifice  as  Herodotus 
mentions. 

3  Pint  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363,  c.  32.  4  Plat.  Tim.  iii.  24. 
6  Herod.  2,  93.    Diod.  1,  36.    Isaiah  xix.  8. 

6  Herod.  2, 154.  Ua^Sag 
X'tSa  yXduaav  iKStSdaKeuOai'  and  Si  rovrui/  iK^ia'^ovroiv  rr)v  yXucrcrav  ol  viv  t«;  r)vit$  iv 
AtyuTrro  ytyoraai. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


37 


There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  broad  line  of  social  distinction 
separated  all  these  classes  from  the  three  privileged  orders.  The 
principle  of  caste  would  have  been  annihilated,  if  the  children  of  an 
artificer  or  a  herdsman  could  have  intermarried  with  those  of  a 
priest,  a  warrior,  or  a  judge.  Religious  feeling  and  esprit  de  corps 
would  no  doubt  close  the  sacerdotal  or  military  class  against  a  man 
of  low  caste,  and  want  of  skill  would  exclude  him  from  the  higher 
departments  of  art.  We  find  some  remarkable  examples  of  the 
hereditary  descent  of  high  public  office.  The  long  succession  of 
the  high -priests  of  Memphis  has  been  already  mentioned.  Lepsius1 
quotes  an  inscription  in  which  a  chief  of  the  mining  works  declares 
that  twenty-three  of  his  ancestors  had  filled  the  same  office  before  him. 
But  there  is  no  proof  that  all  the  sons  of  a  priest  became  priests,  or  of  a 
military  man  soldiers.  The  higher  professions  appear  to  have  been 
open  to  all  of  the  higher  castes,  and  might  even  be  united  in  one 
person,  and  they  might  intermarry  with  each  other ;  so  probably 
might  the  lower,  with  the  exception  of  the  swine-herds.  A  monu- 
ment in  the  Museum  at  Naples,  to  one  who  was  himself  a  general 
of  infantry,  records  that  his  elder  brother  was  a  chief  of  public 
works  and  at  the  same  time  a  priest2.  In  India  at  the  present  day 
no  caste  but  the  Brahminical  is  strictly  preserved3,  and  this  includes 
not  only  the  priesthood,  but  the  higher  civil  professions. 

The  funeral  monuments  of  Egypt,  which  have  thrown  light  on 
the  relations  of  the  privileged  orders  and  shown  that  they  were  not 
separated  by  such  strict  rules  as  had  been  supposed,  give  us  no  cor- 
responding information  respecting  the  lower  castes.  Priests,  war- 
riors, judges,  architects,  chiefs  of  districts  and  provinces,  are  nearly 
the  only  ranks  or  classes  which  appear  in  the  inscriptions ;  we  do 

1  Lepsius,  Tour  to  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai,  p.  4,  Eng.  Transl. 

3  Ampere  in  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  1848,  p.  410.  He,  as  well  as  Rosel- 
lini,  u.  s.,  has  controverted  the  common  opinion  respecting  the  distinction 
of  castes,  from  the  evidence  of  the  monuments. 

*  Rickards,  India,  1,  31.    Elphinstone's  India,  1,  103. 


38 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


not  find  the  laborer,  the  agriculturist,  the  artist  or  the  physician 
receiving  those  funereal  honors  which  consist  in  the  representation 
of  the  deceased  as  offering  to  the  gods,  and  praying  for  their  pro- 
tection in  another  world1.  And  this  shows  the  wide  interval  in 
social  estimation,  by  which  the  upper  and  lower  classes  in  Egypt 
were  separated. 

The  Greeks,  from  whom  we  derive  our  earliest  knowledge  of 
Egyptian  institutions,  were  naturally  struck  with  the  rigid  distinc- 
tion of  the  different  orders  of  society :  it  had  once  existed  among 
themselves2,  but  was  nearly  obliterated  and  forgotten.  If  it  appear 
to  have  been  less  exclusively  a  distinction  of  birth  than  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  suppose,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  one 
of  the  most  important  characteristics  of  Egyptian  society.  Perhaps 
a  Mohammedan  traveller  in  Europe  during  the  prevalence  of  feu- 
dalism might  have  described  its  different  orders  and  their  relation 
to  each  other  in  terms  not  very  unlike  those  which  Herodotus 
applies  to  the  genea  of  Egypt.  Custom  and  sentiment  had  fixed  a 
nearly  impassable  barrier  between  the  villain  and  burgher  on  one 
side,  and  the  military  chief  and  feudal  lord  on  the  other.  The 
burghers  themselves,  arranged  in  crafts  and  guilds,  the  entrance  to 
which  was  jealously  guarded,  would  have  appeared  to  him  rather 
as  an  aggregate  of  separate  communities  than  a  uniform  mass  of 
industrial  population,  such  as  our  modern  cities  exhibit.  A  ple- 
beian would  have  as  iittle  chance  of  obtaining  a  maiden  of  aristo- 
cratic blood  in  marriage,  as  an  Egyptian  of  low  caste  of  marrying 
the  daughter  of  a  priest  or  military  chief ;  the  executioner  or  flayer 
of  cattle  in  Germany  could  no  more  have  intermarried  with  a  pea- 
sant or  a  burgher,  than  the  swineherd  in  Egypt.  The  difference 
lies  in  the  sanction  by  which  the  separation  of  ranks  and  professions 

1  Ampere  ubi  supra. 

2  The  most  natural  explanation  of  the  fourfold  division  of  the  Ionic  popu- 
lation of  Attica  (Herod.  5,  66)  is  that  the  names  denote  their  different  occu- 
pations. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


39 


was  guarded ;  in  Egypt  it  was  enforced  by  religion  ;  in  Europe  it 
was  counteracted  by  the  genius  of  Christianity  and  the  celibacy  of 
the  clerical  order,  in  which  the  humblest  birth  was  no  disqualifica- 
tion for  the  highest  dignity. 

In  a  country  so  fertile  as  Egypt,  in  which  manufactures,  art  and 
internal  commerce  were  carried  on  to  such  an  extent,  wealth  must 
have  accumulated  among  those  who  were  engaged  in  civil  life,  and 
have  given  rise  to  a  class  of  independent  proprietors,  not  included  in 
any  of  the  genea.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  that  in  large  cities  a 
populace  forms  itself,  depending  on  casual  expedients  for  subsistence, 
and,  as  having  no  definite  occupation,  equally  excluded  from  the 
list.  Such  a  class  in  later  times  existed  in  Egypt ;  Sethos  employed 
it  in  support  of  his  usurpation1 ;  Amasis  endeavored  to  check  its 
growth  by  compelling  every  man  to  declare  his  occupation  before 
the  magistrate,  under  penalty  of  death,  if  he  made  a  false  statement 
or  followed  an  unlawful  mode  of  life2.  With  the  exceptions  which 
have  been  pointed  out,  there  can  be  no  question  that  the  rule  of 
Egyptian  society  was3,  that  every  man  should  be  strictly  limited  to 
his  hereditary  business4.  The  ancients  generally  admired  this 
limitation,  and  attributed  to  it  the  high  perfection  which  agricul- 
ture and  art  had  attained.  The  father  taught  his  son  without 
grudging  whatever  he  himself  knew ;  the  peasant  and  the  artisan 
followed  their  proper  business  without  the  distraction  of  politics 
which  engrossed  the  lower  orders  in  republics.  It  was  a  maxim 
that  it  was  best  for  one  man  to  do  one  thing5,  which  is  undoubtedly 
true,  as  far  as  the  perfection  of  his  work  is  concerned.    The  effect 

1  Herod.  2,  141.  'Eticadai  6i  ol  tuiv  ^a^i'pwv  [iiv  ovSeva  dvSpuv,  Ka-rrfjXovs  61 
k  a  I  ^£(flwcaj(  raj  k  a  I  dyopaiovs  d  v  0  p  co~  o  v  s. 

2  Her.  2,  177.  8  Diod.  1,  74. 

4  The  law  which  Dicsearchus  attributes  to  Sesostris  is  pn&tva  KaraXmuv  ri\v 
narpcMV  r^fi/i/.    Schol.  App.  Rhod.  4,  272-276. 

6  Aristot.  Polit.  2,  8.  "Ef  v<p'  c  dj  epyoi>  npiuT  diroTeXetrai*  Set  8i  fin  irpoaT&TTtiv 
tov  avTdi>  avXdv  Kai  gkvtoto^civ. 


40 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


of  such  a  limitation  on  the  character  of  the  man,  and  therefore  ulti- 
mately on  the  progress  of  his  art,  had  not  been  considered. 

The  great  body  of  the  Egyptian '  people  appear  to  have  had  no 
public  duties  whatever,  neither  political,  judicial,  nor  military  ;  the 
idea  of  a  citizen  was  unknown  among  them.  This  exclusion  of  all 
but  priests  and  soldiers  from  political  functions  would  ensure  revo- 
lution in  any  modern  government ;  but  the  privileged  orders  were 
so  firmly  established  by  the  threefold  monopoly  of  knowledge, 
sacred  and  secular,  arras,  and  landed  property,  that  we  do  not  read 
even  of  an  attempt  to  disturb  them,  on  the  part  of  the  excluded 
millions,  till  the  last  century  of  the  history  of  the  Pharaohs. 

The  division  of  Egypt  for  administrative  purposes  was  very 
simple.  The  principal  cities,  with  their  environs,  and  a  number  of 
villages  dependent  upon  them,  formed  a  nome,  as  the  Greeks  called 
it,  over  which  a  prefect  or  nomarch  appointed  by  the  king  presided, 
to  superintend  the  royal  revenues  and  the  details  of  government1. 
The  Delta  contained  ten  of  these  nomes,  the  Thebaid  ten ;  the 
intermediate  country  in  later  times  sixteen,  but  originally  only 
seven2.  This  corresponds  with  the  arrangement  of  the  Labyrinth3, 
which  had,  as  Strabo  saw  it,  twenty -seven  halls.  This  division  was 
attributed  to  Sesostris,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  boundaries  of 
each  nome  were  definitely  fixed,  when  that  general  survey  of  the 
lands  took  place,  which  is  said  to  have  been  made  by  this  sove- 
reign4. Commonly,  however,  authority  only  regulates  and  con- 
firms divisions  which  have  been  determined  by  local  and  accidental 
circumstances.  Religion  appears  in  Egypt  to  have  furnished  the 
original  principle  of  aggregation.  Each  of  the  larger  cities  was  the 
seat  of  the  worship  of  a  peculiar  divinity5,  which  had  been  esta- 

1  Diod.  1,  54.  2  Hence  the  name  Heptan&mis. 

8  Strabo,  B.  17,  p.  787,  811.    Bunsen,  ^Egypten's  Stelle  (1,  179,  note). 

4  According  to  Diodorus,  1,  95,  Amasis  ra  nepl  tjvs  vofiapxas  Sisra^s  xal  ra 
■rrepl  av^izaaav  oiKOPOfjiav  r  Aiyvitrov,  but  this  cannot  in  either  case  relate 
to  the  first  establishment  •  Her.  2,  42. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


41 


blished  there  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  and  the  religious 
usages  which  flowed  from  that  worship  were  co-extensive  with  the 
nome1.  Thus  throughout  the  nome  of  Thebes,  of  which  the  ram- 
headed  god  was  the  chief  divinity,  goats  were  sacrificed,  but  not 
sheep2 ;  while  in  the  Mendesian  nome,  in  reverence  for  the  god  to 
whom  the  goat  was  sacred,  sheep  were  sacrificed,  and  not  goats. 
The  number  of  the  nomes  ultimately  amounted  to  fifty-three,  but 
among  them  were  reckoned  the  Greater  and  Lesser  Oasis,  and  the 
Oasis  of  Ammon.  They  were  again  subdivided  into  toparchies,  of 
whose  extent  we  are  not  informed.  Delegates  from  the  nomes, 
chosen  according  to  station  and  character3,  assembled  at  intervals  at 
the  splendid  palace  of  the  Labyrinth,  near  the  Lake  Mceris.  Each 
delegation  was  accompanied  by  the  priests  and  priestesses  of  its  chief 
temple,  and  was  lodged  in  its  appointed  place,  among  the  3000  apart- 
ments which  the  Labyrinth  included.  Sacrifices  and  gifts  were  made 
to  the  gods,  and  doubtful  questions  of  jurisdiction  settled.  If  the  halls 
in  the  Labyrinth  were,  as  Herodotus  says4,  only  twelve  in  number, 
only  the  larger  nomes  can  have  sent  delegates,  and  some  pre- 
eminence on  the  part  of  twelve  of  them  appears  to  be  implied  in 
the  establishment  of  a  dodecarchia  or  government  of  twelve  kings, 
after  the  usurpation  of  Sethos. 

We  have  no  distinct  information  as  to  the  modem  which  justice 
was  ordinarily  administered  in  Egypt  Probably  the  nomarch  and 
the  toparch  exercised  a  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  police  and  causes 
of  minor  importance.  To  judge  is  also  reckoned  among  the  func- 
tions of  the  king5.    In  the  monarchies  of  the  East  it  is  an  attribute 

1  Heeren  (2,  108,  112,  Eng.)  supposes  that  the  temples  were  foundations 
by  priestly  colonies  from  Meroe,  and  that  they  established  the  worship  of 
the  local  god  in  each  district  The  language  of  Herodotus  implies  that  the 
people  of  the  nome  established  the  temple 

2  Her.  u.  s. 

8  Strabo,  17,  p.  811,  with  Tyrwhitt's  emendation  of  fywrivitp 
4  Her.  2,  148.  6  Diodor.  1,  76. 


42 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


inseparable  from  royalty,  and  the  authority  of  all  inferior  tribunals 
is  only  a  delegation  from  the  prerogative  of  the  Sovereign.  Such 
is  indeed  the  theory,  though  not  the  origin,  of  our  own  judicial 
system.  The  principal  court  of  judicature  was  composed  of  thirty 
persons,  chosen  for  their  merit  from  the  three  most  celebrated  cities 
of  the  kingdom,  Thebes,  Memphis,  and  Heliopolis — ten  from  each. 
As  these  cities  were  also  the  most  remarkable  for  the  number  and 
learning  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  it  has  been  generally  taken  for 
granted  that  the  judges  belonged  to  this  caste.  That  they  were  of 
sacerdotal  families  appears,  from  what  has  been  already  said  on  the 
subject  of  castes,  very  probable,  but  hardly  ministering  priests, 
since  each  one  had  duties  to  perform  in  the  temple  to  which  he  was 
attached.  ^Elian,  by  saying  that  originally*  the  judges  were 
priests,  implies  that  in  later  times  it  was  otherwise.  These  thirty 
chose  a  president  from  among  themselves,  in  whose  place  the  city 
by  which  he  had  been  sent  furnished  another.  Probably  therefore 
the  original  selection  had  been  made  by  the  cities.  Their  salaries 
were  paid  by  the  king.  All  proceedings  were  carried  on  in  writing, 
that  the  decision  might  not  be  influenced  by  the  arts  of  oratory, 
nor  the  stern  impartiality  of  law  be  overcome  by  personal  supplica- 
tion. A  collection  of  the  laws  in  eight  volumes  lay  before  the 
judges;  the  plaintiff  or  accuser  declared  in  writing  how  he  had 
been  injured,  cited  the  portion  of  the  law  on  which  he  relied,  and 
laid  the  amount  of  his  damages,  or  claimed  the  penalty  which  in 
his  view  the  law  awarded.  The  culprit  or  defendant  replied  in 
writing,  point  by  point,  denying  the  fact  alleged,  or  showing  that 
his  act  had  not  been  unlawful,  or  that  the  penalty  claimed  was 
excessive.  The  plaintiff  having  rejoined,  and  the  defendant  replied 
again,  the  judges  deliberated  among  themselves.  A  chain  of  gold 
and  precious  stones  was  worn  by  the  president,  to  which  an  image 
of  Thmei,  the  goddess  of  Truth,  was  attached,  and  he  pronounced 
sentence  by  touching  with  this  image  the  plaintiff's  or  defendant's 

1  Var.  Hist.  14,  34.     AiKaaral  to  dp^aXov  nap  AiyvnTioti  Upeis  foav. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


43 


pleadings1.  We  are  not  told  how  the  facts  were  established,  and 
indeed  the  whole  account  suggests  the  idea  of  a  Court  of  Appeal, 
rather  than  of  primary  jurisdiction. 

From  the  complex  state  of  society  in  Egypt,  more  strikingly 
evinced  by  its  monuments  than  even  by  the  accounts  of  ancient 
writers,  we  may  conclude  that  the  laws  were  numerous.  Yet  few 
of  them  have  been  handed  down  to  us,  and  no  document  of  this 
kind  has  been  hitherto  deciphered  from  the  remains  of  Egyptian 
antiquity.  The  character  of  the  legislation  therefore  must  be 
gathered  from  the  general  testimony  of  the  ancient  world,  or  by 
analogy  from  a  few  specimens  which  remain.  The  tradition  that 
Lycurgus,  Solon  and  Plato2,  had  borrowed  from  Egypt  the  laws 
of  their  real  or  imaginary  states,  is  a  proof  of  the  high  estimation  in 
which  they  were  held,  whatever  historical  value  it  may  possess. 
Their  wisdom  and  humanity  may  be  inferred  from  the  correspond- 
ence which  has  been  remarked  between  the  Egyptian  and  the  Jewish 
institutions.  If  this  be  explained  as  by  Spencer3,  who  thinks  that 
certain  lawrs  and  usages  to  which  the  Jews  had  become  accustomed, 
were  adopted  into  the  Mosaic  Law,  the  highest  sanction  is  given 
to  them.  If,  with  his  great  opponent  Witsius4,  we  believe  that 
they  were  copied  by  the  Egyptians  from  Abraham,  and  from  his 

1  The  resemblance  of  this  ornament  to  the  Urim  and  Thummim  worn  by 
the  Jewish  high  priest  has  been  noticed  by  all  writers  on  Jewish  or  Egyp- 
tian antiquities.  Yet  the  use  was  very  different ;  one  was  an  official  chain, 
probably  with  a  seal  attached  to  it ;  the  other  answered  the  purpose  of  an 
oracle  (Exod.  xxxix.  10;  Lev.  viii.  8;  Num.  xxvii.  21).  Nor  is  there  any 
etymological  ground  for  deriving  Thummim  from  the  Egyptian  TTimei, 
although  the  Seventy  may  have  been  influenced  by  the  Egyptian  usage  in 
rendering  it  by  'A^nQeia. 

2  Diod.  1,  69,  96,  98. 

3  See  hi3  great  work  De  Legibus  Hebrreorum,  p.  903,  "Monendum  est 
institutorum  Mosaicorum  partem  multo  maximam  e  consuetudine  aliqua 
quae  apud  JEgyptios  aut  alias  e  vicinia  gentes  inveteraverat  dimanasse." 

4  Witsii  ^Egyptiaca,  lib.  2,  c.  1,  §  vii. 


44 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


descendants,  subsequently  to  their  expulsion  and  the  giving  of  the 
Law  from  Sinai  (a  much  less  probable  supposition)1,  the  inference 
as  to  their  character  will  be  the  same. 

The  criminal  law  of  Egypt  was  mild  and  equitable2.  The  wilfui 
murder  of  a  slave  was  punished  with  death,  like  that  of  a  freeman ; 
the  exposure  of  infants  was  forbidden,  nor  was  the  mother  allowed 
to  be  executed  with  an  unborn  child.  False  accusation  (we  may 
presume  where  a  malicious  purpose  could  be  shown)  was  punished 
with  the  same  penalty  as  would  have  fallen  on  the  accused  if  con- 
victed ;  and  perjury  with  death.  A  thousand  lashes  were  inflicted 
on  an  adulterer,  mutilation  of  the  nose  on  an  adulteress.  A  parent 
who  had  killed  his  child  was  compelled  to  sit  three  days  and  three 
nights,  under  the  guard  of  a  public  officer,  embracing  its  body.  It 
was  a  capital  offence  not  to  have  assisted  one  who  was  slain  by 
violence,  the  legislator  presuming  complicity  where  there  had  been 
no  effort  to  prevent  murder.  Even  the  neglect  to  give  information 
of  a  robbery  was  punished  by  stripes  and  three  days'  imprisonment 
without  food.  Some  of  their  punishments  however  were  cruel ; 
others  appear  to  us  fantastic,  from  an  attempt  to  carry  out  strictly 
the  lex  tulionis.  Such  was  the  punishment  inflicted  on  a  violator 
of  female  chastity  :  one  who  gave  intelligence  to  an  enemy  had 
his  tongue  cut  out ;  an  adulterer  of  the  standard  currency3,  a  falsi- 
fier of  weights  and  measures,  a  public  scribe  who  had  forged  or 
mutilated  public  writings,  had  his  hand  cut  off.  A  grave  has  been 
found  near  Saccara,  apparently  of  such  criminals,  as  the  hands  and 
feet  have  been  cut  off  at  the  joints4.  It  is  probable  that  in  the 
times  of  the  Pharaohs5,  as  well  as  of  the  Ptolemies,  the  working 

1  Uarpioiffi  xpeconevoi-  v6fioi(riv  ol  Aiyvnrioi  SXXov  ovScva  hwcituvrat  (Her.  2, 
79,  91.) 

2  Diod  1,  11,  1  . 

8  The  Egyptians  had  no  stamped  coin,  but  used  rings  of  metal  in  ex- 
change. 

4  Perring  in  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  3,  38. 

6  Compare  Agatharehides  ap.  Phot.  cel.  11,  p.  1342,  whom  Diodorus  fol- 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


4.5 


of  the  gold-mines  of  the  Arabian  Desert  was  one  of  the  punish- 
ments of  criminals.  The  labor  was  cruelly  severe,  and  was  exacted 
by  the  scourge ;  in  the  low  and  winding  passages  in  which  they 
wrought,  the  miners  were  compelled  to  assume  painful  and  unna- 
tural postures  in  order  to  carry  on  their  work1.  Their  complaints 
could  excite  no  sympathy,  for  guards  were  placed  over  them  who 
did  not  understand  their  language.  Children,  women  and  old  men 
were  employed  in  different  operations,  and  neither  infirmity  nor 
disease  procured  a  respite,  while  there  remained  any  strength  which 
blows  could  compel  them  to  exert2.  Sabaco  the  Ethiopian  intro- 
duced the  practice  of  employing  criminals  on  public  works,  instead 
of  putting  them  to  death. 

A  singular  law  prevailed  in  regard  to  thieves3.  They  were 
organized  under  a  chief,  with  whom  their  names  were  enrolled, 
and  to  whom  everything  stolen  was  brought.  Those  who  had 
been  robbed  applied  to  him,  and  obtained  back  their  property  on 
payment  of  a  fourth  of  the  value.  This  amounts  in  fact  to  impu- 
nity for  any  one  who  was  willing  to  make  restitution  on  payment 
of  one-fourth,  and  probably  nowhere  has  stolen  property  been  so 
cheaply  recovered.  The  law  has  been  converted  by  later  authori- 
ties4 into  a  general  permission  of  theft  in  Eg^-pt. 

The  most  sanguinary  part  of  the  Egyptian  law  was  that  which 
protected  the  sacred  animals,  as  already  mentioned5.  It  is  proba- 
ble, however,  that  the  fanaticism,  of  which  Diodorus  witnessed  an 

lows.  He  says  that  the  mines  had  been  wrought  in  the  earliest  times,  but 
the  working  had  been  interrupted  by  the  incursions  of  the  Ethiopians. 

1  IloXXa^cJS  irpds  raj  rijj  Trerpaj  io«<Sr»jra$  p.craaj(rip.aTi^ovT£s  ru  cwpa-u.  (Diod. 
8,  14.) 

2  Ov  rvy%avei  uvyyvwuns  11 W  aviatwi  an-Xws  ovk  appoiaros,  ov  irtitjjpbipivoi  ov  yzyrj- 
pa<cu>j,  ov  yvvaiicds  doQzvtia.  (Ibid.) 

8  Diod.  1,  80. 

4  Aulus  Gellius,  11,  18,  quoting  "  Aristo  jureconsultus." 
6  Herod.  2,  65.    Cicero,  BT.  D.  1,  29,  includes  the  dog  and  the  crocodile 
among  the  animals  whom  it  was  a  capital  crime  to  kill.    (Diod.  1,  *72.) 


46 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


example,  was  one  mode  of  expressing  national  animosity,  and  that 
it  had  not  existed  in  such  intensity  before  the  Persian  conquest. 
The  law  of  sacrilege  in  Christian  countries  has  been  equally  severe 
and  inhuman  ;  nor  would  a  Jew,  suspected  of  an  act  of  disrespect 
towards  the  rites  and  emblems  of  the  Church,  have  fared  better  at 
the  hands  of  the  multitude,  than  the  Roman  who  fell  a  victim  to 
the  fury  of  an  Egyptian  mob. 

The  condition  of  females,  according  to  Diodorus1,  was  singularly 
favorable  to  the  weaker  sex,  the  prerogatives  of  a  queen  being 
greater  than  those  of  a  king,  and  the  husband  engaging  in  the 
marriage  contract  to  obey  the  wife  in  everything.  These  state- 
ments are  rendered  suspicious  by  being  connected  with  the  mythic 
sovereignty  of  Isis.  The  marriage  of  brothers  and  sisters  was 
allowed2.  Herodotus,  contrasting  the  manners  and  customs  of 
Egypt  with  those  of  other  countries,  remarks,  that  the  women 
went  to  market  and  carried  on  retail  trades,  while  the  men  sat  in 
the  house,  occupied  at  the  loom3.  This,  however,  indicates  no 
superior  privilege  on  the  part  of  the  Egyptian  women  ;  it  is  only 
a  proof  that  weaving  was  in  Egypt  an  art  requiring  great  skill  and 
long  practice4,  not  as  in  Greece  a  part  of  domestic  economy.  The 
other  circumstances  which  Herodotus  mentions,  as  contrasts  with 
Greek  customs,  are  rather  proofs  of  the  depressed  condition  of  the 
female  sex.    Women  carried  burthens  on  their  shoulders,  men  on 

1  Diod.  1,  21. 

9  This  custom  was  explained  by  the  marriage  of  Isis  with  Osiris.  (Diod. 
ibid.)  It  is  said  to  be  confirmed  by  the  monuments,  but  I  doubt  if  sister 
and  cousin  can  be  distinguished. 

'  Herod.  2,  35.  The  Greeks,  who  despised  manufactures,  ridiculed  the 
habits  of  the  Egyptians  as  effeminate  (Soph.  (Ed.  Col.  337).  The  Ionian 
women  were  peculiarly  sedentary  (Xen.  Rap.  Lac.  1,  3,  with  Haase's 
note). 

*   Nam  longe  prsestat  in  arte, 

Et  solertius  est  multo  genus  omne  virile. 

Lucr.  5,  1354,  speaking  of  weaving. 


CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS. 


47 


their  heads,  the  women  of  course  bearing  the  heavier  weights. 
Women  were  excluded  from  all  but  menial  offices  about  the  tem- 
ples ;  to  maintain  their  parents  if  in  want  was  voluntary  with  sons, 
compulsory  with  daughters.  The  monuments,  as  far  as  they  have 
hitherto  been  interpreted,  afford  no  countenance  to  the  statement 
of  Diodorus,  though  we  cannot  doubt  that  the  condition  of  the 
female  sex  in  Egypt  partook  of  the  general  character  of  humanity 
and  refinement  which  belonged  to  that  country.  Polygamy  was 
allowed  except  to  the  priests1,  and  all  children,  whether  by  wives 
or  concubines,  were  equally  legitimate.  But  even  where  several 
wives  were  taken,  one  of  them,  under  the  title  of  Lady  of  the 
House,  enjoyed  a  superiority  in  honor  and  authority  over  the  rest3. 
In  the  marshy  districts  of  Lower  Egypt  monogamy  prevailed,  pro- 
bably owing  to  the  poverty  of  the  inhabitants,  as  in  Mohammedan 
countries  the  lower  and  even  middle  classes  have  usually  only  one 
wife. 

Of  the  civil  laws  of  the  Egyptians  very  little  is  known.  Most 
of  those  which  are  specified  are  attributed  to  Bocchoris3,  who  is 
supposed  to  be  the  Pehor  of  the  monuments,  and  to  have  lived  a 
short  time  before  the  Ethiopian  conquest.  One  of  the  most  impor- 
tant was,  that  the  goods  only  of  a  debtor  could  be  taken,  and  that 
the  arrest  of  the  person  was  not  allowed,  on  the  ground  that  his 
services,  whether  a  soldier,  a  peasant,  or  an  artisan,  belonged  to 
the  state.  In  this  respect  the  Egyptian  law  was  wiser  and  more 
humane  than  that  of  most  of  the  Grecian  states,  which  secured  to 
a  debtor  the  implements  by  which  he  gained  his  living,  yet  allowed 
him  by  imprisonment  to  be  deprived  of  the  means  of  using  them4. 
Solon  introduced  the  Egyptian  practice  into  the  law  ol  Athens.  If 
no  wTritten  security  had  been  given,  a  man  might  clear  himself 
from  a  claim  by  his  oath — a  proof  how  general  was  the  use  of 


1  Diod.  1,  80.  Herod.  1,  92. 
*  Diod.  1,  79,  94. 


3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  3,  137. 

4  Diod.  ibid. 


48 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


writing  for  civil  purposes  among  the  Egyptians  in  later  times,  and 
a  salutary  limitation  of  credit.  The  interest  of  a  debt  was  never 
allowed  to  amount  to  more  than  double  the  principal, — an  ample 
security  for  the  lender's  rights,  and  a  preventive  of  those  violent 
infringements  of  the  law  of  debtor  and  creditor,  which,  under  the 
names  of  Seisachtheia  and  Novce  Tabulce,  we  meet  with  in  Greek 
and  Roman  history.  By  a  singular  law,  passed  at  a  time  when 
there  was  a  great  want  of  circulating  medium1,  a  man  was  allowed 
to  pledge  the  mummies  of  his  forefathers  for  debt,  but  was  himself 
deprived  of  sepulture  if  he  omitted  to  redeem  them  before  his 
death.  The  prohibition  appears  to  have  included  his  descendants, 
as  long  as  the  debt  remained  unpaid. 

1  'Etti  'Acrv^ios  PaaiXsvfv  »r,  iy^ns  iovans  nuWrjs  ^p^/iarwi/.     (Herod.  2,  136.) 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


INTRODUCTION. 

AUTHORITIES  FOR  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY. 
SECT.  I.  GREEK  "WRITERS. 

The  commencement  of  Grecian  intercourse  with  Egypt  is  hidden 
by  the  darkness  of  antehistoric  times.  The  warlike  expeditions  of 
the  Egyptian  kings  no  doubt  included  Ionia,  but  the  coast  of  Asia 
was  not  then  inhabited  by  Greek  settlers,  and  it  is  not  alleged  that 
Sesostris  carried  his  arms  into  Hellas  proper1.  The  stories  of  Egyp- 
tian colonization  in  Greece  are  generally  of  so  late  an  origin,  that 
we  cannot  even  infer  from  them  the  existence  of  a  popular  belief2. 
There  is,  however,  one  exception.  The  story  of  Io,  the  Argive 
princess,  who  was  changed  into  a  heifer,  and  after  long  wanderings 
reached  Egypt  where  she  gave  birth  to  a  god,  and  herself  was 
worshipped  as  the  goddess  Isis,  points  clearly  to  the  introduction 
of  the  worship  of  Isis  or  Athor,  under  the  symbol  of  the  heifer,  at 
an  early  period  into  Argos.  As  the  worship  of  the  Moon  under 
this  symbol  appears  to  have  prevailed  in  Phoenicia,  as  well  as  in 
Egypt,  it  might  have  been  doubted  from  which  of  these  countries 
it  was  transferred  to  Argos,  but  for  the  circumstance  that  Io  is  the 
Coptic  name  of  the  Moon3,  and  the  same  term  was  preserved  in 

1  Herod.  2,  103. 

2  Even  Diodorus  (1,29)  acknowledges  the  vanity  of  these  pretensions  on 
the  part  of  the  Egyptians. 

8  Peyron,  Lex.  Copt.  p.  59. 


52 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  dialect  of  Argos,  without  apparent  affinity  with  any  Greek 
root1.  The  story  of  the  migration  of  Danaus  and  ./Egyptus  with 
their  fifty  sons  and  daughters  to  Argos  cannot  be  traced  higher 
than  to  the  age  of  ^Eschylus  and  Herodotus  ;  but  it  was  received 
by  the  latter  as  historical,  and  the  existence  of  the  belief  is  hardly 
to  be  explained,  unless  we  admit  the  general  fact  of  an  Egyptian 
colonization. 

We  are  not  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  history  of  naviga- 
tion among  the  Greeks,  to  assign  with  any  probability  the  time 
when  they  first  visited  the  shores  of  Egypt.  They  regarded  it  as 
at  once  a  distant  and  a  difficult  voyage2.  Even  the  life  of  a  tra- 
veller who  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  savage  people  inhabiting  the 
marshes  near  the  mouths  of  the  Nile  was  not  safe,  for  there  was  a 
time  when  the  harbor  of  Pharos  was  not  opened  for  the  admission 
of  strangers3.  The  sacrifice  of  ruddy-colored  men  appears  to 
have  prevailed  in  Lower  Egypt  in  the  early  ages  of  the  monarchy4, 
and  the  fair  and  yellow-haired  Greeks  would  be  especially  the 
objects  of  aversion  and  outrage  from  their  Typhonian  hue6.  If 
they  visited  Egypt,  they  appear  to  have  confined  themselves  to  the 
Canopic  mouth  of  the  Nile.  To  this  their  mythic  traditions  reier. 
Here  was  the  Tower  of  Perseus6,  and  a  little  further  to  the  east 
the  temple  of  Hercules,  who  on  his  return  from  Libya  had  encoun- 
tered and  slain  the  inhospitable  Busiris7.  Hither  Paris  had  been 
driven  on  his  way  from  Sparta  to  Troy.    Canopus  itself  was  sup- 

1  Ya^av  'lovrjv  xaXovai  Tives  zvQa  0ovs  nv  lv  dyaXjjiari  rrjs  'Iafif  rjroi  Trie  cs\fivtjs* 
'Iw  yap  fi  (rchjvri  Kara  r>jv  twv  'Apyeiuv  8ia\£KTi>v.  (Eust.  ad  Dionys.  Perieg.  V. 
94.) 

2  Od.  6',  483.  8  Eratosth.  ap.  Strab.  p.  802.    Diod.  1,  67. 
4  Plut.  p.  380.    Porphyr.  de  Abst.  p.  199. 

6  rEv  Ticriv  'opraig  t&v  jilv  dv8ou>Tra>v  tovs  iTBfJ/fotJS  npoirrjXnKi^ovff^  Sia  r<5  itvfipov 

ytyovivai  tov  TvQtiva.  (Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  362  F.)  Busiris  was  one  of  the 
places  in  which  the  Typhonian  superstition  prevailed. 

8  Herod.  2,  15.  7  Strabo,  p.  801.    Diod.  4,  27.    Her.  2,  113. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


53 


posed  to  have  derived  its  name  from  the  pilot  of  Menelaus,  who 
had  sailed  thither  on  his  return  from  Troy  and  been  detained  by 
the  anger  of  the  gods1.  The  name  of  Thon,  which  appears  in  the 
story  of  Menelaus,  was  derived  from  a  town  of  that  name,  which 
stood  near  the  Canopic  mouth2,  and  a  place  called  Heleneius  is 
mentioned  in  the  same  locality3.  The  Canopic  mouth  was  the 
nearest  to  Greece  and  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  inhabited  by  Greeks ; 
it  gave  the  most  ready  access  to  the  interior,  and  afforded,  even  in 
the  earliest  times  of  Greek  navigation,  a  deeper  and  safer  anchor- 
age than  any  of  the  other  channels4. 

The  incidental  mention  of  Egypt  in  the  Homeric  poems  leads  us 
to  suppose  that  the  Greeks  in  general  were  but  little  acquainted 
with  it,  and  least  of  all  with  upper  Egypt5.  The  island  Pharos, 
which  must  then  as  now  have  lain  close  to  the  coast,  is  placed  by 
the  poet  at  the  distance  from  it  of  a  day's  sail6.  If  this  arose  from 
ignorance  on  his  part,  it  proves  that  the  coast  was  not  much  fr 
quented  by  navigators  ;  if,  as  seems  probable,  it  was  designed  in 
order  to  afford  a  more  appropriate  scene  for  the  "specious  miracle" 
of  Proteus,  it  presumes  ignorance  of  the  true  position  on  the  part 
of  his  auditors.    With  the  exception  of  Thebes,  only  Lower  Egypt 

1  Od.  6',  83,  351.      2  Diod.  1,  19.      8.Hecata?us  apud  Steph.  Byz.  s.  voc. 
4"E^£i  fiiv  ovv  elaaycoyas  to.  aTOfiara  d\\'  ovk  £V(f>veTs,  ovSe  [icydXois  tt\oiois  d\\' 
virripETiKoTs,  Sta  to  (Sparta  elvai  koX  i\u>6r]'  fiaXiaTa  pivrot  rti  Kavw/Juroj  aTQ^.aTi  e%- 
pwvTo  a>j  £^7roj9('w.    (Strabo,  p.  801.) 

6  The  assertion  of  the  Egyptian  priests  (Diod.  1,  96),  that  it  was  recorded 
in  their  sacred  books  that  Homer  had  visited  Egypt,  deserves  no  credit. 
6  Nijao?  ezeiTa  tis  tori  ttoXvkXvo-tco  evi  novrco 

A.iyvirrov  irpo-rrdpoide  (Qapov  St  i  KiK\r\aKOvai) 
Tdccov  avevd'  baaav  re  Travriptptr)  y\a<pvpr)  prjvs 
"Hfwcv,  rj  \iyvs  ovpos  &TTiirvt'iT)oiv  omodev. — Od.  6',  354. 

No  deposition  of  soil  can  have  filled  up  this  interval;  nor  is  anything 
gained  by  making  Aiyv-nrrov  here  signify  the  river  Nile,  contrary  to  its 
obvious  meaning  ;  for  Pharos  is  not  trpondpoiOz  any  part  of  the  river,  and 
much  less  than  a  day's  sail  from  the  nearest  part  of  it    In  Virgil's  time  the 


54 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


is  alluded  to.  Menelaus  is  said  in  the  Odyssey1  to  have  received 
rich  presents  from  Polybus,  who  dwelt  in  Thebes,  and  in  aftertimes 
this  Polybus  was  converted  into  a  king  of  the  19th  dynasty.  The 
exaggerated  description  of  Thebes,  and  its  wealth2,  indicates  that 
it  was  known  from  the  boastful  rumor  of  the  natives  rather  than 
from  ocular  inspection.  Egypt's  abundance  in  skilful  physicians 
and  medicinal  herbs  is  noticed  in  the  Odyssey,  but  this  too  is 
turned  into  a  tale  of  'wonder  in  the  description  of  the  virtues  of 
the  Nepenthe*.  Before  the  time  of  Psammitichus,  Greeks  were 
not  allowed  to  go  beyond  the  coast  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  the  occa- 
sional visits  of  traders  to  a  single  sea-port,  inhabited  by  a  people 
whose  language  was  utterly  unknown  to  them,  could  furnish  no 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  interior,  much  less  any  insight  into  the 
history  of  the  country. 

This  state  of  things  was  entirely  changed  in  the  reign  of  Psam- 
mitichus, who  gained  his  kingdom  by  means  of  Ionian  and  Carian 
mercenaries  (670  b.  c),  took  them  permanently  into  his  pay,  and 
established  a  body  of  interpreters,  by  whose  means  the  Greeks 
began  to  acquire  an  accurate  knowledge  of  Egypt*.  Amasis, 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half  later,  allowed  them  to  settle  at  plea- 
sure in  Naucratis.  Yet  Pindar  speaks  of  Mendes  as  being  "  near 
a  cliff  of  the  sea,"  though  there  is  no  cliff  on  the  coast,  nor  was 
Mendes  near  it5.  The  state  of  Greek  literature  however  has  pre- 
vented our  deriving  any  benefit  from  this  source,  in  the  interval 
between  the  reign  of  Psammitichus  and  the  Persian  conquest. 

mouth  of  the  ]S~ile  was  too  well  known  to  be  the  scene  of  a  tale  of  wonder 
and  he  transfers  it  to  the  Carpathian  Sea.    (Georg.  4,  387.) 

1  Od.  6\  126. 

2  H  t',  381.    See  vol.  i.  p.  150. 

3  Od.  6',  220  seq. 

4  Herod.  2,  154.    Diod.  1,  67. 

6  Tlapa  Kpnjivdv  QaXaaoas.  (Frag.  Boeckh.  215.)  Comp.  Fr.  50,  where  Egypt 
is  Called  dy%tKpr)fjivos. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


55 


During  this  time  Thales  and  Pythagoras  had  visited  Egypt,  and 
been  initiated  into  the  religion  and  science  of  the  Egyptians1,  but 
we  have  only  vague  traditions  of  their  travels  ;  for  history  had  not 
yet  come  into  existence  among  the  Greeks  themselves.  Still  the 
presence  of  intelligent  foreigners  controlled  the  propensity  of  the 
natives  to  give  a  marvellous  air  to  everything  in  their  history,  and 
established  a  chronology  moderate,  credible  and  continuous  for  the 
period  subsequent  to  the  reign  of  Psammitichus,  while  before  that 
time,  in  the  works  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  the  history  is 
mythical  and  extravagant,  and  the  chronology  exaggerated,  uncer- 
tain and  fragmentary. 

The  overthrow  of  the  monarchy  of  the  Pharaohs  by  Cambyses, 
coinciding  with  the  commencement  of  prose  history  in  Ionia,  at 
length  laid  Egypt  completely  open  to  the  researches  of  the  Greeks, 
and  preserved  the  record  of  them  to  succeeding  times.  The  philo- 
sophers who  visited  it  while  the  hierarchy  retained  their  power, 
were  probably  compelled  to  purchase  their  initiation  into  the  secrets 
of  science  and  the  mysteries  of  religion2  by  humble  entreaty,  and 
attain  it  through  long  preliminary  forms3 ;  and  the  jealous  sensi- 
bility of  the  multitude,  in  everything  which  regarded  their  religion, 
would  co-operate  with  the  spirit  of  secresy  and  monopoly  in  the 
priesthood,  to  render  free  inquiry  dangerous  and  difficult.  The 
Persian  conquest  made  the  professors  of  a  different  and  hostile  reli- 
gion masters  of  the  country,  opened  all  its  approaches,  and  enabled 
the  Greeks  to  visit  every  part  of  it.  The  reign  of  Darius  established 
order  and  peace  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  monarchy ; 

1  Antiphon  ap.  Porph.  de  Vita  Pyth.  Diog.  Laert.  8,  3.  According  to  this 
author,  the  friendly  relations  between  Polycrates  and  Amasis  obtained  for 
Pythagoras  admission  first  to  the  Heliopolitan,  then  to  the  Memphite,  and 
last  of  all  the  Theban  Priests. 

a  Diod.  1,  98. 

*  UpoaTdyfjLara  (XK'Xripa  iral  Kt^oipiafitva  r/yf  'EXX»7vtic>7S  aywy?K,  Says  Antipho  of 

the  trials  by  which  the  patience  of  Pythagoras  was  tried. 


56 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


Egypt  in  particular  felt  the  benefit  of  his  firm  but  tolerant  sway. 

The  earliest  Greek  descriptions  of  Egypt  were  probably  written 
during  his  reign1.  Cadmus  must  have  written  on  Egypt,  since 
Diodorus  (1,  37)  includes  him  among  those  who  had  given  fabu- 
lous accounts  of  the  Nile.  Hecataeus,  like  Cadmus,  a  native  of 
Miletus,  a  city  which  was  the  first  school  of  Greek  history  and 
geography,  was  a  contemporary  of  Darius,  and  had  included  Egypt 
among  the  countries  which  he  described  in  his  Periegeses  or  Peri- 
odos2.  Nothing  has  been  quoted  from  this  last  work,  by  which  we 
can  judge  whether  he  gave  its  history,  but  the  descriptive  part  must 
have  been  minute,  since  Herodotus  has  been  charged  with  almost 
literally  copying  from  him  the  passages  in  his  second  book  relating 
to  the  phoenix,  the  hippopotamus  and  the  crocodile3.  Hellanicus 
of  Lesbos,  a  few  years  before  Herodotus,  either  wrote  a  work  enti- 
tled AlyvtfriuxcL*,  or  at  all  events  introduced  many  particulars  respect- 
ing the  productions,  customs  and  dogmas  of  Egypt  into  some  of 
his  voluminous  writings.  According  to  the  judgment  of  Photius, 
it  contained  much  that  was  mythic  and  fictitious6,  but  it  might 

1  Hippys  of  Rhegium,  who  lived  eni  nov  TLepcriKcov  (Suid.),  is  reckoned  by 
Heyne  among  the  writers  on  Egypt  (De  Font.  Hist.  Diod.  xxviii.),  but  no 
such  work  is  ascribed  to  him,  and  he  may  have  mentioned  the  antiquity  of 
the  Egyptian  people,  and  the  purity  of  the  air  and  water  incidentally  in  his 
other  writings.  Schol.  ap.  Rhod.  4,  262,  where  the  name  is  written  'Imrwv 
in  Schol.  Paris. 

2  It  was  doubtful  whether  the  works  which  were  current  under  these 
names  in  the  time  of  Athenseus  and  Arrian  were  genuine.  (Arr.  5,  6. 
Athen.  Epit.  2,  p.  70  ) 

3  Euseb.  Praep.  Evang  10.  3,  quoting  Porphyry  nepl  rov  Kktnras  thai  rovg 

*  The  title  quoted  by  Athenaeus,  p.  470  D.  679  R,  is  not  decisive  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  a  separate  work  so  named,  since  we  find  the  AiyvnrtaKa 
of  Herodotus  quoted,  evidently  the  Euterpe  (Sturz,  Hellan.  p.  40).  Plutarch 
mentions  Hellanicus  as  writing  the  name  Osiris  Usiris  (Is.  et  Os.  p.  364). 

6  Cod.  clxi.  p.  339,  /xu9t*o  koX  7rAaa/iart*a  ttoAAu.    Two  sources,  however,  are 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


57 


nevertheless  be  a  faithful  account  of  what  he  had  seen  and  heard. 
Pherecydes,  who  was  three  years  younger  than  Herodotus,  but 
published  earlier,  introduced  the  mention  of  Egypt  into  his  'Itfropfai, 
in  connexion  with  the  attempt  of  Busiris  to  sacrifice  Hercules1.  But 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  had  visited  this  country,  and  the  frag- 
ments of  his  work  indicate  that  he  regarded  the  history  of  all  other 
nations  from  the  Grecian  point  of  view,  and  endeavored  to  inter- 
weave it  with  the  mythic  history  of  the  heroic  age. 

Probably  none  of  these  writers,  not  even  Hecatseus,  contained  a 
connected  history  and  chronology  of  Egypt.  We  may  regard  these 
as  beginning  with  Herodotus.  The  Egyptians  had  revolted  from 
Persia  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Darius  (486  b.  c),  but  had  been 
brought  into  subjection  early  in  that  of  Xerxes  (484  b.  a),  and  had 
again  revolted  under  Inaros  king  of  Libya  in  460  b.  c.  This  revolt 
lasted  six  years,  and  the  Athenians  had  assisted  the  Egyptians  with 
a  fleet,  which  at  first  was  successful  and  took  possession  of  Memphis, 
but  was  subsequently  destroyed  by  Megabyzus2.  Whether  Hero- 
dotus visited  Egypt  during  its  temporary  occupation  by  the  Greeks, 
or  subsequently  to  the  re-establishment  of  the  Persian  dominion  in 
455  b.c,  is  uncertain.  It  is  evident  from  his  history  (2,  99)  that 
at  the  time  when  it  was  written  they  were  in  possession  of  it ;  but 
many  years  intervened  between  his  travels,  and  the  publication  of 
his  Muses  in  their  present  form.  In  either  case  it  is  evident  that 
he  was  able  to  pass  freely  through  the  country  to  the  borders  of 
Nubia8,  and  pursue  eveiy  investigation  which  his  inquisitive  mind 
suggested.  His  residence,  however,  seems  to  have  been  chiefly 
confined  to  Lower  Egypt  and  Memphis ;  he  visited  Thebes,  but  it 

mentioned,  Hellanieus  and  -<£lius  Dionysius  (or  Dius),  and  it  does  not  appear 
what  belonged  to  each. 

Pherecydes,  ed.  Sturz,  pp.  132,  13*7.  Herodotus  probably  had  him  in 
view  (2,  45)  when  he  charges  the  Greeks  with  repeating  idle  tales  respecting 
human  sacrifices  in  Egypt. 

*  Thuc.  1,  104,  109.  3  Her.  2,  29. 

3* 


58 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


was  to  ascertain  whether  its  sacerdotal  traditions  agreed  with  those 
which  he  had  heard  at  Memphis,  and  the  reader  is  surprised  that 
he  should  have  passed  over  in  profound  silence  its  temples,  palaces, 
and  sepulchres,  as  well  as  all  the  circumstances  which  give  to  Upper 
Egypt  a  character  so  different  from  that  of  the  Delta.  Thebes  had 
suffered  especially  from  the  fury  of  Cambyses1,  yet  its  buildings 
remained,  and  even  in  its  ruins  it  must  have  far  surpassed  every 
other  city  of  Egypt.  He  appears  to  have  derived  his  materials 
almost  entirely  from  the  accounts  of  the  priests2  and  the  Greeks 
settled  in  the  country :  he  never  quotes  as  authorities  the  writers 
who  had  preceded  him,  though  he  sometimes  alludes  to  their  mis- 
takes3. The  information  which  the  priests  gave  him  was  commu- 
nicated orally,  except  in  one  instance,  in  which  they  read  to  him 
from  a  papyrus  a  list  of  341  kings.  In  other  passages4  he  men- 
tions the  purport  of  inscriptions  which  had  been  explained  to  him. 

His  history  begins  with  Menes,  the  founder  of  the  monarchy  and 
of  Memphis,  succeeded  by  330  sovereigns,  respecting  whom,  as 
they  had  erected  no  monuments,  the  priests  had  nothing  further 
to  relate  than  that  eighteen  among  them  were  Ethiopians  and  one 
a  queen,  Nitocris.  The  next  name,  and  therefore  the  331st  from 
Menes,  is  that  of  Mceris,  the  author  of  the  remarkable  excavation, 
for  so  Herodotus  considered  it,  in  the  district  of  Fyoum,  which 
received  the  overflowings  of  the  Nile.  The  conqueror  Sesostris 
succeeds  to  Mceris,  and  to  Sesostris  his  son  Pheron.  In  the  reign 
of  his  successor,  Proteus,  is  related  the  history  of  the  adventures 
of  Paris,  Menelaus  and  Helen  in  Egypt,  followed  by  the  reign  of 
Rhampsinitus  the  wealthy,  with  the  anecdote  of  the  thief  who 
robbed  his  treasury.  After  Rhampsinitus  come  the  builders  of  the 
pyramids — Cheops,  Chephren  and  Mycerinus,  followed  by  Asychis 

1  Strabo,  p.  816.  Diod.  1,  46. 

8  2,  99,  100,  102,  107,  111,  113,  118,  124,  154.  In  2,  142  he  quotes  as  his 
authorities  Aiyiirriot  ti  koI  o{  ipecs. 

8  2,  16.  4  2,  125,  136,  141. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


59 


and  Anysis,  in  whose  reign  Sabaco  the  Ethiopian  invaded  Egypt 
and  kept  possession  of  the  throne  for  fifty  years.  His  evacuation 
of  the  kingdom  made  way  for  the  elevation  of  Sethos,  succeeded 
by  the  Dodecarchia,  or  government  of  twelve  chieftains,  whose 
power  Psammitichus  put  down  and  consolidated  the  government 
in  his  own  hands.  With  Psammitichus,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  we  reach  a  period  of  ascertained  history  and  definite 
chronology ;  but  the  effect  of  the  establishment  of  the  Greeks  in 
Egypt  is  in  some  degree  retrospective,  and  extends  this  period  as 
far  back  as  the  Ethiopian  dominion. 

In  regard  to  all  that  precedes  this  age,  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ,  it  is  evident,  from  the  inspection  of  the  history  of  Herodo- 
tus by  itself,  and  without  comparison  with  monuments  or  with  any 
other  historical  book,  that  it  cannot  be  accepted  as  true,  either  in 
its  facts  or  its  dates.  Even  the  circumstance  that  after  Menes  330 
sovereigns  are  said  to  have  succeeded  to  each  other,  without  leaving 
any  memorial  of  themselves  in  public  works,  or  legislation,  or  con- 
quest, is  sufficient  to  show  that  the  kings  and  their  chronology  are 
unhistorical.  If  we  suppose,  which  is  not  improbable,  that  Hero- 
dotus has  mistaken  the  statement  received  from  the  priests,  and 
that  the  330  kings  were  not  represented  by  them  as  intervening 
between  Menes  and  Moeris,  but  are  to  be  added  to  the  eleven  who 
succeeded  Mceris,  and  whose  reigns  are  specially  described  by  him, 
making  341  for  the  whole  number  from  Menes  to  the  extinction 
of  the  line  of  the  Pharaohs  in  Sethos,  this  would  not  be  sufficient 
to  make  his  history  credible.  The  properly  historical  information, 
from  Menes  to  the  Ethiopian  invasion,  is  comprised  in  the  single 
reign  of  his  Sesostris,  who  appears  as  a  conqueror  and  a  legislator. 
All  the  other  sovereigns  serve  only  to  explain  the  existence  of  pub- 
lic works  and  monuments,  or  connect  themselves  with  narrativos 
which  betray  their  origin  in  superstition  or  popular  credulity  ; 
nothing  is  recorded  of  them  analogous  to  the  facts  which  authentic 
history  preserves  respecting  the  real  monarchs  of  powerful  and 


60 


ANCIENT  EGYPT. 


civilized  countries,  and  which  must  certainly  have  "been  contained 
in  the  annals  of  the  Egyptians,  the  most  learned  people  in  their 
national  antiquities1  of  any  of  the  ancient  world. 

It  is  also  obvious,  that  a  considerable  portion  of  this  history  has 
been  produced,  since  the  establishment  of  the  Greeks  in  Egypt,  by 
their  earnest  desire  to  connect  their  own  mythic  history  with  that 
of  Egypt.  The  Egyptian  priests  were  ready  to  co-operate  with  them 
for  this  purpose ;  each  party  having  also  its  separate  aim,  to  exalt 
the  glory  of  their  respective  countries.  The  adventures  of  Menelaus 
in  Egypt,  detailed  even  to  the  speeches,  occupy  about  the  same  space 
(2,  112—120)  as  the  whole  reign  of  Sesostris  (102—111).  The 
Homeric  mythe  of  Proteus,  a  marine  divinity  feeding  his  phocce  on 
the  coast  of  Egypt,  and  endowed  with  the  gift  of  prophecy,  which 
he  will  only  exercise  upon  compulsion,  is  transformed  into  the  his- 
tory of  a  man  of  Memphis2,  who  succeeds  to  the  throne  of  Egypt 
on  the  death  of  Pheron,  the  son  of  Sesostris.  This  history  Hero- 
dotus received,  and  apparently  in  undoubting  faith,  from  the  priests 
themselves,  who,  though  they  could  furnish  him  nothing  memorable 
to  record  respecting  330  sovereigns,  relate  with  the  minuteness 
of  a  contemporary  journal  the  adventures  of  a  Trojan  prince,  cast 
upon  their  shores  ;  adventures  trivial  in  themselves  if  they  ever 
happened,  and  little  likely  to  have  found  a  place  in  sacerdotal 
annals.  But  while  the  Greeks  were  gratified  to  find  a  confirmation 
of  their  own  history  in  that  of  Egypt,  the  Egyptian  priests  rejoiced 

1  2,  77.  O"  fiiv  nepi  r»>  aTreipofiivrjv  Aiyvxrov  otxcovai,  \ivr\pr\v  dvdpujnuv  ndvTWv 
inaffKCoi'TCS  fid^iaTa,  Xoyiwrur Jt  eiai  ^HKfjio  rcov  eyco  tig  dtdnetpav  dirtKOfiriv.  \6yiog 

is  explained  by  Hesycliius  as  rrjs  loropias  l^eipoi.  Clem.  Alex.  p.  757,  Pot- 
ter, will  show  how  much  even  the  priests  had  to  commit  to  memory,  al- 
though they  had  a  large  number  of  written  volumes. 

2  Proteus  was  worshipped  at  Memphis,  but  in  the  quarter  of  the  Tyrians 
(Her.  2,  1 1 2),  and  he  was  connected  with  the  temple  of  the  Foreign  Venus. 
The  story  was  transferred  probably  by  Phoenician  colonization,  with  the 
worship  of  the  Cabiri  (Her.  3,  37)  to  Pallene  (Virg.  Georg.  4,  390).  See 
Kenrick's  Egypt  of  Herodotus,  p.  265. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


61 


in  the  opportunity  of  exhibiting  their  ancient  sovereigns  as  exercis- 
ing justice  and  hospitality  towards  the  Greeks.  They  had  been 
accused  by  the  Greeks  of  putting  strangers  to  death  ;  but  according 
to  the  account  given  by  the  priests  to  Herodotus,  Menelaus  seized 
and  sacrificed  two  Egyptian  children  to  obtain  favorable  winds — 
an  evident  allusion  to  the  story  of  the  sacrifice  of  Iphigenia.  It  is 
also  obvious  that  Egyptian  mythology  and  popular  anecdote  have 
furnished  a  considerable  portion  of  what  Herodotus  has  given  us 
for  history.  To  the  former  class  belong  the  stories  of  the  descent 
of  Rhainpsinitus  into  Hades,  and  the  grief  of  the  daughter  of  Mv- 
cerinus ;  to  the  latter  the  pleasant  tale  of  the  thief  who  was  caught 
in  the  trap,  when  endeavoring  to  rob  the  treasure-house  of  Rhamp- 
sinitus.  Such  being  the  general  character  of  the  history,  even 
those  parts  which  do  not  bear  on  their  face  the  marks  of  a  mvthic 
or  fictitious  origin,  lose  their  historical  evidence  ;  they  are  less 
improbable  than  the  rest,  but  not  more  certain. 

From  a  history  composed  of  such  materials  no  chronologv  can 
be  deduced.  Herodotus  makes  Mceris  to  have  preceded  only  by 
900  years  his  own  visit  to  Egypt ;  but  as  we  find  in  the  ascent  to 
Mceris  a  person  of  such  doubtful  historical  character  as  Proteus,  we 
can  place  no  reliance  on  any  portion  of  the  chain.  Herodotus 
besides  connects  this  date  of  the  reign  of  Mceris  with  the  assurance, 
that  in  his  time  a  rise  of  the  Nile  of  eight  cubits  was  sufficient  to 
inundate  the  Delta ;  whereas  in  the  historian's  own  day  a  rise  of 
sixteen  cubits  was  necessary  for  this  purpose.  This  however  sup- 
poses a  rate  of  variation  for  the  height  of  the  soil  and  river  so  dif- 
ferent from  everything  which  has  been  ascertained,  that  if  the  fact 
be  admitted  the  date  must  be  false  ;  and  if  the  fact  be  incorrect,  the 
authority  of  those  by  whom  it  was  related,  and  from  whom  the 
whole  chronology  is  derived,  as  given  by  Herodotus,  is  of  no 
ralue. 

It  is  evident  that  a  popular  history  had  formed  itself  in  Egypt  in 
the  time  of  Herodotus,  having  very  little  connexion  with  written  or 


62 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


monumental  authority,  of  which  the  leading  object  had  been  to 
satisfy  the  curiosity  of  travellers  by  furnishing,  what  they  always 
eagerly  inquire  for,  the  names  of  the  authors  of  public  works,  and 
some  anecdotes  respecting  them.  Had  he  derived  his  history  from 
a  class  of  persons  corresponding  with  those  who  in  modern  Europe 
have  the  charge,  and  take  on  themselves  the  explanation  of  public 
monuments,  we  should  not  have  been  surprised  at  the  vagueness 
of  his  chronology  and  the  leaning  to  the  marvellous  in  his  narra- 
tives. But  he  repeatedly  appeals  to  the  authority  of  the  priests, 
who  as  a  body  must  in  this  age  have  retained  the  knowledge  of  the 
hieroglyphical  character  and  an  ample  religious  and  antiquarian 
literature.  I  can  only  explain  this  by  supposing  that  the  priests  with 
whom  he  conversed  were  of  a  very  subordinate  rank  and  ignorant 
of  the  antiquities  of  their  country,  who  had  framed  for  the  use  of 
visitors  such  a  history  as  would  satisfy  their  curiosity  and  excite 
their  imagination,  without  overburthening  their  memory  with 
names1.  From  the  account  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus2,  it  should 
seem  that  the  interpretation  of  the  hieroglyphic  character  was  the 
office  only  of  the  hierogrammateus,  from  whom  the  others  learnt  by 
heart  what  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  know  for  the  execu- 
tion of  their  offices.  This  may  help  to  account  for  the  extraordi- 
nary character  which  the  history  of  Herodotus  presents,  considered 
only  by  itself,  and  its  still  more  extraordinary  aspect,  when  con- 
fronted with  the  monuments. 

1  The  account  which  the  grammatistes  of  the  temple  of  Sais  gave  to  Hero- 
dotus (2,  28)  of  the  source  of  the  iXile,  which  he  describes  as  rising  between. 
Syene  and  Elephantine,  and  flowing  half  towards  Egypt  and  half  towards 
Ethiopia,  proves  either  that  the  Egyptians  made  experiments  on  the  credu- 
lity of  the  Greeks,  or  that  an  inhabitant  of  Lower  Egypt,  where  the  Greeks 
chiefly  collected  their  information,  might  be  very  ignorant  of  the  geography 
of  Upper  Egypt.  The  Greeks  themselves  very  rarely  reached  the  southera 
frontier  of  the  kingdom,  much  less  did  they  venture  into  Ethiopia,  (Diod. 
Sic.  1,  37.) 

'Strom.  6,  p.  757. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


63 


Egypt  remained  open  to  the  Greeks,  when  they  were  not  them- 
selves in  hostility  with  Persia.  Philistus,  the  Syracusan,  had  pro- 
bably visited  this  country,  during  his  long  exile,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century  b.c.  He  wrote  a  work  on  Egypt  in  twelve 
books,  and  on  Egyptian  theology  in  three  books,  besides  a  discourse 
concerning  Naucratis1.  Democritus,  about  the  same  time,  is  said 
to  have  spent  five  years  in  Egypt,  and  to  have  written  on  the  sacred 
characters  of  Meroe2 ;  but  neither  of  his  works  nor  those  of  Phi- 
listus has  more  than  the  titles  reached  us. 

If  we  are  inclined  to  wonder  at  the  vagueness  and  inaccuracy  of 
these  Greek  accounts  of  Egypt,  we  must  remember,  that  the  monu- 
ments in  general  precede  by  many  centuries  the  earliest  of  them, 
and  that  a  variance  between  them  does  not  therefore  necessarily 
imply  unfaithfulness  on  the  part  of  the  Greeks.  Besides  this,  many 
obstacles  stood  in  the  way  of  their  obtaining  accurate  information. 
Ignorant  themselves  of  the  language  of  the  country,  they  had  to 
depend  on  Egyptian  interpreters,  who  probably  possessed  only  that 
superficial  knowledge  of  Greek  which  enabled  them  to  carry  on 
intercourse  on  the  common-place  topics  of  commerce  and  conversa- 
tion. The  repugnance  of  the  Egyptians  for  foreign  religion  and 
manners  must  have  made  them  unwilling  to  receive  the  Greeks  into 
intimacy,  or  give  them  information.  Like  our  own  countrymen, 
they  bore  themselves  towards  barbarians  with  the  air  of  conscious 
superiority,  which  inflames  dislike3.  The  priesthood  in  particular 
appear  to  have  endeavored  to  humble  the  national  pride  of 
the  Greeks,  by  representing  everything  in  their  civilization,  even 
their  philosophy  and  science,  as  derived  from  Egypt. 

The  next  great  event  in  the  history  of  Egypt  is  its  conquest  by 
Ptolemy,  the  son  of'Lagus,  in  the  year  322  b.c,  by  which  a  Greek 
dynasty  was  established  there  and  in  Ethiopia.    Many  of  the 

1  Suidas,  s.  v.  $'i\httos.  8  Diog.  Laert  9,  49. 

8  See  the  observations  of  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  M.  <fe  C.  5,  466. 


04 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Greeks  subsequently  composed  Egyptian  histories  ;  but  none  of 
them  has  been  preserved,  except  by  quotations  in  later  authors. 
From  a  fragment  of  Dicaearchus,  who  lived  about  300  B.C.,  it 
appears  as  if  he  had  placed  Sesonchosis  or  Sesostris  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  monarchy,  immediately  after  Horus,  whom  the 
Greeks  reckoned  to  have  been  the  last  of  the  gods1,  and  2936  years 
before  the  sera  of  the  Olympiads.  Such  a  position  of  Sesostris  is 
purely  arbitrary,  and  must  have  been  owing  to  his  celebrity  as  a 
conqueror — a  proof  that  Egyptian  history  was  still  arranged 
according  to  popular  conception  rather  than  documentary  and 
monumental  evidence.  Eratosthenes  of  Cyrene,  the  chief  librarian 
of  the  Alexandrian  library,  a  man  of  extraordinary  compass  of  lite- 
rary and  scientific  attainments,  had  occupied  himself  with  the 
genealogy  and  succession  of  the  Theban  kings2  in  the  reign  of  the 
second  Ptolemy  ;  but  his  labors  appear  to  have  had  little  influence 
upon  the  popular  history,  which,  as  it  is  given  by  Diodorus,  retains 
the  same  general  character  as  in  Herodotus. 

Diodorus  visited  Egypt  in  the  180th  Olympiad,  about  58  b.c.8 
From  what  source  the  portion  of  his  history  was  derived  which 
differs  from  Herodotus,  we  do  not  know.  He  had  seen  Memphis, 
and  probably  Thebes ;  he  had  read  the  authors  who  had  written 
on  Egypt  in  the  times  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  quotes,  without  pro- 
fessing himself  to  have  read,  the  annals  of  the  priests.  Although 
not  admitting  that  the  Barbarians  generally  were  older  than  the 
Greeks,  the  reputed  birth  of  the  gods  in  Egypt,  the  high  antiquity 
of  astronomical  science  there,  and  the  fulness  and  importance  of 
its  historical  records,  led  him  to  begin  his  Universal  History  with 

1  Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod.  4,  272. 

2  Ti)v  yvutaiv  tpiqaiv  b  'Eparoodivris  \a@u)V  AiyvnriaKoTs  viro^ivfina<Ti  Kai  dvopaai  Kara 
vpoara^iv  /3a<nXiA>/>  ri)  'EWdSi  (piovrj  itapttypaotv  ovrcos  (Syncell.  Chronog.  p.  91. 

171  Dind.)  The  same  author  says  that  Eratosthenes  received  the  names  e* 
t<Hv  iv  A(og-7t<5A£i  UpoypapnaTtu*     (p.  147,  279  Dind.) 

3  Hist  1,  46. 


GREEK  WRITERS.  65 

that  of  Egypt,  and  prefix  to  it  a  speculation,  in  historical  garb,  on 
the  progress  of  civilization  in  that  country,  from  the  time  when 
the  inhabitants  lived  on  the  spontaneous  growth  of  the  papyrus, 
next  on  fish,  then  on  the  flesh  of  animals1,  and  lastly  on  lotus,  till 
a  king  and  queen,  Osiris  and  Isis,  discovered  the  cultivation  of 
grain. 

In  the  history  of  Diodorus  we  perceive  two  changes  which  had 
taken  place  since  the  time  of  Herodotus.  The  father  of  history, 
in  accordance  with  the  accounts  given  him  by  the  priests,  represents 
the  gods  of  Egypt  as  wholly  distinct  from  men2.  But  in  the 
interval  between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  the  opinion  had  sprung 
up  among  the  Greeks  that  the  gods  had  been  illustrious  chiefs  and 
warriors,  inventors  and  improvers  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  raised 
to  the  rank  of  divinity  through  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of 
mankind3.  Osiris,  therefore,  who  had  been  to  Herodotus  a  god, 
answering  in  the  Egyptian  pantheon  to  Dionysus  in  the  Greek, 
appears  in  Diodorus  as  a  king  of  Egypt  also,  according  to  some 
accounts  the  founder  of  Thebes,  who  with  a  large  army  traversed 
the  world,  to  diffuse  the  blessings  of  civilization4.  Another  change 
is  the  endeavor  to  connect  Egyptian  history,  not  only  with  Greek 
history  generally,  but  with  the  country  of  the  reigning  dynasty. 
Osiris  is  accompanied  by  his  son  Macedo,  whom  he  leaves  as  king 
of  that  region,  a  fiction  by  means  of  which  Egyptian  pride  was 
flattered  with  the  belief  that  Egypt  had  been  conquered  by  princes 
of  its  own  blood5.    The  celebrated  wine  of  Maronea,  or  Ismarus 

Hist.  1,  9.  43.  2  1,  143.    See  vol.  i.  p.  295. 

8  The  Egyptians  combined  the  ancient  with  the  modern  doctrine,  by  the 
supposition  that  each  celestial  god  had  a  mortal  representative  mostly  of 
the  same  name  (Diod.  1,  12,  13).  4  Diod.  1,  24,  28. 

*  Obvious  as  this  is,  the  interpreters  of  hieroglyphics  have  ought  for  a 
Macedo  among  the  names  of  the  ancient  gods  of  Egypt  (Wilkinson,  pi.  44 ; 
Young  in  Supp.  to  Encyclop.  Brit.).  Fortunately  for  the  credit  of  their 
science,  they  have  not  found  him. 


66 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


in  Thrace,  which  in  this  age  was  included  in  Macedonia1,  was  also 
said  to  have  derived  its  name  from  Maro,  a  follower  of  Osiris  in 
his  Thracian  expedition  ;  and  Lycurgus,  a  name  occurring  in  the 
Iliad2,  is  represented  as  being  slain  in  consequence  of  his  resistance 
to  Osiris.  In  this  age  it  had  become  known  that  beer,  a  common 
beverage  in  Egypt,  was  used  among  the  barbarous  nations,  whose 
climate  could  not  ripen  grapes,  and  this  also  Osiris  had  taught 
them  to  make3. 

The  properly  human  history  of  Diodorus  begins,  like  that  of 
Herodotus,  with  Menes.  The  line  of  his  insignificant  successors, 
of  whom  there  was  nothing  to  relate,  extends  only  to  fifty-two, 
occupying  a  space  of  1400  years.  After  this  interval  Busiris  suc- 
ceeds, and  eight  of  his  descendants,  of  whom  the  last,  Busiris  II., 
founds  the  city  which  the  Egyptians  call  the  city  of  Zeus,  and  the 
Greeks  Thebes.  At  this  point  there  is  a  break  in  the  chronology. 
Having  mentioned  the  sumptuous  temples  and  other  works  by 
which  the  kings  who  succeeded  Busiris  II.  had  adorned  Thebes, 
he  describes  at  great  length  the  monument  of  Osymandyas4 ;  and 
when  he  returns  to  his  history  and  says  that  Uchoreus,  eighth  in 
descent  from  this  king,  founded  Memphis,  it  is  uncertain  whether 
he  means  from  Busiris  or  from  Osymandyas,  probably  the  former. 
Mceris,  the  twelfth  in  descent  from  Uchoreus,  excavated  the  lake 
which  bears  his  name,  and  erected  in  it  two  pyramids,  on  one  of 
which  a  statue  of  himself,  on  the  other  of  his  queen,  was  placed. 
Seven  generations  later  lived  Sesoosis,  whose  history  has  so  close 
a  resemblance  with  that  of  the  Sesostris  of  Herodotus,  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  that  they  are  the  same  persons.  His  son  of  the  same  name 
succeeded  him,  and  from  the  circumstances  of  his  history  appears 
to  be  the  Pheron  of  Herodotus.    After  him  came,  in  many  gene- 

1  Strabo,  Epit.  7,  6,  331.  The  Greeks  on  their  side  alleged  that  Marea, 
near  Alexandria  (Georg.  2,  91),  derived  its  name  from  the  Homeric  Maron. 
(Od.  t',  197.    Eust.  ib.) 

•     184.  8  Her.  2,  77.    Diod.  1,  20.  4  1,  47. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


67 


rations,  whose  number  is  not  specified,  a  succession  of  kings,  who 
performed  nothing  worthy  of  record.  Amasis,  the  next  named, 
alienated  the  minds  of  his  people  by  his  tyranny,  so  that,  being 
invaded  by  Actisanes  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  Egypt  fell  with  little 
resistance  under  his  dominion.  At  his  death  the  Egyptians  reco- 
vered their  independence,  and  chose  Mendes  or  Marus  for  their 
king,  who  built  the  Labyrinth  as  a  sepulchre  for  himself.  An 
anarchy  which  lasted  five  generations  was  ended  by  the  election 
of  a  man  of  the  common  people,  called  Cetes  by  the  Egyptians, 
Proteus  by  the  Greeks.  The  variation  in  the  names  is  perhaps 
only  apparent ;  for  though  KsVtjs  is  said  to  be  Egyptian,  its  ana- 
logy to  the  Greek  Kyrog1,  whence  the  Latin  cetus,  cete,  leads  to  the 
suspicion  that  it  represents  the  same  idea  as  Proteus,  a  marine 
deity,  partaking  of  the  form  of  a  fish2.  The  reign  of  Cetes  must 
be  considered  in  the  chronology  of  Diodorus  to  answer  to  the  time 
of  the  Trojan  war.  The  Remphis  who  succeeds  to  Cetes  is  evidently 
the  Rhampsinitus  of  Herodotus.  In  comparing  the  accounts  of 
these  two  kings,  as  given  by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  we  see  an 
attempt  in  the  latter  to  give  an  historical  air  and  historical  proba- 
bility to  that  which  his  predecessor  had  left  in  the  vagueness  of 
mythe  and  tradition.  The  knowledge  of  the  winds  possessed  by 
Proteus  is  ascribed  to  his  intimacy  with  the  astronomers,  who  were 
supposed  to  be  capable  of  predicting  the  changes  of  the  weather ; 
his  transformations,  to  the  custom  of  the  Egyptian  rulers  to  put 
on  the  heads  of  lions,  bulls  and  serpents.  Herodotus  mentions, 
but  does  not  account  for  nor  specify,  the  immense  wealth  of  Rhamp- 

1  We  find  the  various  readings  of  Kerva,  Kcrnv,  Kerrjva  (Diod.  1,  62),  but 
none  seems  to  represent  a  true  Egyptian  name. 

2  The  knowledge  of  the  future  was  for  some  mythic  reason,  not  necessary 
to  be  here  inquired  into,  supposed  to  belong  especially  to  the  marine  deities. 
(Hes.  Theog.  233.  Apoll.  Rhod.  1,  310.  Ov.  Met.  12,  556.  8,  787.)  K/?™ 
in  Hesiod  u.  s.  is  a  daughter  of  Hdvroe  and  sister  of  Nereus ;  Proto  (ib.  243) 
is  a  daughter  of  Nereus. 


cs 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


sinitus,  which  was  probably  connected  with  his  supposed  descent 
into  Hades1 ;  according  to  Diodorus  he  is  a  Henry  VIL,  rigid  in 
the  exaction  of  his  revenues  and  penurious  in  his  expenditure2 ;  he 
knows  also  the  exact  amount  of  treasure  which  he  left  behind  him, 
namely  four  hundred  thousand  talents  of  gold  and  silver.  To 
Remphis  succeed  for  seven  generations  kings  devoted  to  luxury 
and  indolence,  in  consequence  of  which  the  records  related  nothing 
of  them,  except  that  from  one  of  them,  Xileus,  the  river,  previously 
called  JEgyptus,  took  its  later  name.  The  cause  of  the  change 
was  the  great  service  which  he  rendered  to  his  country  by  the 
construction  of  canals,  a  work  which  Herodotus  ascribes  to  Sesos- 
tris.  The  seven  faineans  were  succeeded  by  Chembes  ;  Chephres, 
or  Chabryis  ;  and  Mycerinus  or  Mecherinos,  the  builders  of  the 
pyramids,  in  regard  to  whom  there  is  no  remarkable  difference 
between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus.  After  these  kings  comes  Boc- 
choris,  son  of  Tnephactus,  of  mean  person,  but  surpassing  in  talent 
and  wisdom  all  his  predecessors.  Long  afterwards  Sabaco  the 
Ethiopian  reigned  over  Egypt,  and  on  his  retirement  the  anarchy 
took  place,  which  was  ended  by  the  establishment  of  the  Dodecarchia, 
and  that  after  fifteen  years  by  the  sole  reign  of  Psammitichus. 
Incidentally  Diodorus  also  mentions  Mneves,  the  first  king  wdio  gave 
written  laws  to  the  people,  which  he  professed  to  have  received 
from  Hermes  ;  and  Sasyches,  who  was  not  only  a  lawgiver,  but  the 
inventor  of  geometry  and  astronomy3. 

The  variations  between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  are  too  great 
to  allow  of  their  being  explained  by  the  causes  which  produce  dif- 
ferences in  dates,  successions  and  events,  even  in  histories  founded 
upon  documentary  evidence.  Little  stress  can  be  laid  upon  a  want 
of  congruity  in  names,  since  we  know  that  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt 

1  See  vol.  1,  p.  336. 

2  AieTc\e(r£  iravra  tov  tov  %rjv  %povov  i-rnfie\6 jievos  tcSv  irpocrdSoiv  nai  aoiptvoiv  iravra- 
%6dev  tov  tt\ovtov.     (Diod.  1,  63.) 

1  1,  S2. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


GO 


had  two  or  even  three1 ;  but  the  discrepancy  here  affects  every  ele- 
ment of  history.  Sixty  reigns  at  least  intervene  between  Menes 
the  founder  of  Memphis,  according  to  Herodotus,  and  Uchoreus, 
to  whom  Diodorus  attributes  its  foundation.  Herodotus  extends 
the  number  of  the  obscure  successors  of  Menes  to  330  ;  Diodorus 
limits  them  to  52.  Herodotus  includes  in  these  eighteen  Ethio- 
pians ;  in  Diodorus  there  is  no  mention  of  Ethiopian  sovereignty 
till  the  reign  of  Actisanes,  which  corresponds  in  part  with  the 
second  Ethiopian  dominion  in  Herodotus,  that  of  Sabaco.  The 
building  of  the  Labyrinth,  the  reign  of  Remphis,  the  erection  of  the 
Pyramids,  are  all  placed  by  the  two  historians  in  different  relative 
positions ;  the  Labyrinth,  which  according  to  Diodorus  was  erected 
five  generations  before  the  Trojan  War,  dates  according  to  Hero- 
dotus from  the  Dodecarchia.  Diodorus  makes  the  whole  number 
of  native  sovereigns  of  Egypt  to  have  been  470  kings  and  5  queens2. 
Herodotus3  makes  them  341  from  Menes  to  Sethos ;  but  as  only 
twenty  native  princes  at  most  reigned  from  Sethos  to  Nectanebus, 
the  accounts  cannot  be  reconciled.  The  duration  of  the  native 
monarchy  was  according  to  the  Egyptians  above  4700  years  (Diod. 
1,  69),  according  to  the  calculation  of  Herodotus  (2,  142)  11,340. 
These  discrepancies  are  so  enormous  and  so  fundamental  as  to 
preclude  the  idea  that  they  can  have  been  superinduced  by  lapse 
of  time  and  a  variety  of  narrators  on  a  history  originally  authentic. 
Nor  have  we  any  ground  for  stamping  one  with  the  character  of 
authenticity  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.  Both  appeal  to  the 
same  authority,  the  narratives  of  the  priests  :  Diodorus,  it  is  true, 
with  a  more  frequent  allusion  to  written  documents ;  but  as  he 
could  not  read  them  himself,  he  can  give  no  evidence  as  to  their 
contents.  Both  of  them  appear  to  owe  their  origin  to  the  same 
cause,  the  desire  to  connect  together  a  few  leading  facts  in  Egyp- 

1  Aicovvjiui  Kal  Tpiwvvfioi  no\\a%ov  rdv  A.lyvitrid)v  ol  ffeuriXtts  evprjvrai.  (SyncelL 
p.  63  A.  117  Dind.) 

9  1,  44.  8  2,  142. 


10 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


tian  history,  and  assign  the  most  remarkable  monuments  to  their 
authors.  In  the  age  of  Diodorus  the  remains  of  Thebes  attracted 
more  attention  than  in  that  of  Herodotus,  and  the  history  is 
enlarged  by  explanations  of  their  origin.  Both  authors  were 
ignorant  of  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds;  both  misplaced  the 
aera  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids1,  and  by  these  two  great  errors 
disturbed  their  whole  chronology.  By  transposing  Cheops,  Che- 
phren  and  Mycerinus  to  the  blank  spaces,  which  in  both  historians 
precede  Mceris,  as  suggested  by  Lepsius,  we  bring  them  into  a 
general  agreement  with  the  Egyptian  authorities.  Upon  the  whole, 
the  history  of  Diodorus  has  the  more  historical  air ;  its  chronology 
is  more  moderate,  its  narratives  less  mythic;  not  because  it  is 
derived  more  immediately  from  historical  sources,  but  from  its 
being  accommodated  to  the  taste  of  an  age  which  by  arbitrary 
methods  gave  an  historical  character  to  that  which  was  mythic  in 
its  origin. 

The  variations  between  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  may  be  con- 
veniently exhibited  in  a  tabular  form2. 

Herodotus.  Diodorus. 

Menes.  Menes. 

329  kings  among  whom  are  18     52  kings,  1400  years. 
Ethiopians  and  one  queen,  Busiris  I. 

Nitocris.  1  kings. 

Busiris  II  founds  Thebes. 

7  kings. 
TJehoreus  founds  Memphis. 
^Egyptus. 
11  kings. 

Moeris.  Mceris. 

6  kings. 

1  Diod.  1,  63,  says  that  some  reckoned  the  pyramids  to  be  above  3400 
years  old.    This  would  not  be  very  far  from  Manetho's  reckoning. 
a  See  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  259. 


GREEK  WRITERS. 


11 


Herodotus. 


Sesosfcris. 
Pheron. 


Proteus. 
Rampsinitus. 


Cheops. 

Chephren. 

Mycerinus. 

Asychis. 

Anysis. 

Sabaco. 

Sethos. 

Dodecarchia. 

Psammitichus. 

Neco. 

Psammis. 

Apries. 

Amasis. 


DlODOEUS, 

Sesoosis. 
Sesoosis  IL 

Many  generations. 
Amasis. 
Actisanes. 
Marrus. 

Five  generations. 
Anarchy. 
Proteus  or  Ketes. 
Remphis. 

Seven  generations. 
Nileus. 
Chembes. 
Chephren. 
Myeerinus. 
Tnephactus. 
Boechoris. 

A  long  interval. 
Sabaco. 

Dodecarchia. 
Psammitichus. 

Three  generations. 

Apries. 
Amasis. 


The  Greek  history  of  Egypt,  though  it  can  no  longer  be  received 
as  true,  must  always  be  studied.  The  substantial  truth  of  those 
parts  which  are  not  obviously  fabulous  was  admitted  till  very  recent 
times.  The  names  of  the  eminent  persons  mentioned  in  it  passed 
into  history  to  the  exclusion  of  those  to  whom  this  place  belonged. 
Everywhere  in  ancient  and  modern  literature  we  meet  with  allu- 
sions to  it.  The  monuments  must  be  consulted,  that  we  may  know 
what  the  history  of  Egypt  was ;  the  Greek  writers,  that  we  may 
know  what  the  world  has  till  lately  believed  it  to  be.  Perhaps 


72 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  reader  who  compares  the  imperfect  skeleton  of  the  authentic 
Egyptian  annals  with  the  animated  and  flowing  narrative  of  Hero- 
dotus will  regret  that  the  age  of  simple  faith  is  past1. 

SECT.  II.  EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 

It  was  impossible  that  those  among  the  Egyptian  priests  who 
were  versed  in  their  own  history  and  antiquities,  should  be  satis- 
fied that  they  should  be  so  imperfectly  represented  to  the  Grecian 
world  as  by  Herodotus,  nor  could  the  enlightened  Greek  sovereigns 
of  Egypt  fail  to  perceive  the  inconsistency  between  his  accounts, 
and  the  facts  which  were  before  their  eyes.  The  establishment  of 
the  Greek  dominion,  therefore,  by  the  conquest  of  Alexander,  soon 
produced  a  statement  of  the  philosophy,  religion  and  history  of 
Egypt,  from  one  whose  authority  could  not  be  called  in  question. 
Manetho,  the  highpriest  of  the  temple  of  Isis  at  Sebennytus  in 
Lower  Egypt,  in  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Lagi  (322 — 284  B.C.),  a 
man  of  the  highest  reputation  for  wisdom2,  and  versed  in  Greek  as 
well  as  Egyptian  lore3,  published  various  works  for  the  purpose  of 
informing  the  Greeks,  and  his  History,  as  it  should  seem,  specially 
to  correct  the  errors  of  Herodotus4.    They  have  all  perished5,  but 

1  Xfiptj  6'  airtp  atravra  rev^ei  to.  ju'i\i^a  Ovarois, 

'Ji,iri<ptpoioa  Tifiav  Kal  amcrTov  kfif]aaTo  ttkttov 
"Epfjemi  to  TroWdxis. — Pind.  01.  1. 
But  Pindar  was  a  philosopher  as  well  as  a  poet,  and  he  adds — 
'A-ficpai  8'  kiriXonzoi  p.dpTvpss  cxpcoraroi. 
3  Zo<piat  els  aKpov  tXijXa/cdra  avSpa,    (M\.  Nat.  Hist.  10,  16.)    He  was  con- 
sulted by  Ptolemy  respecting  the  introduction  of  the  worship  of  Serapis. 
(Plut  Is.  et  Os.  p.  362.) 

3  Joseph.  C.  Apion.,  1,  14.     Tns  'RWqviKng  fiZTca^riKuig  iraiSciai. 

4  Bustathu  ad  Iliad.  X,  480,  p.  857. 

5  There  exists  under  the  name  of  Manetho  an  astrological  poem,  entitled 
'A.ir)Tc\ctpaTiKa\  long  admitted  to  be  spurious,  and  a  treatise  Bi/3\os  rfjs  LwOeios, 
which  Syncellus  quotes  as  genuine.    It  is  however  proved  to  be  spurious 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


the  respect  with  which  he  is  spoken  of  by  heathen,  Jewish  and 
Christian  writers,  gives  a  high  value  to  the  fragments  and  inciden- 
tal notices  which  alone  remain.  The  longest  and  the  most  impor- 
tant are  those  from  his  Egyptian  History,  which  consisted  of  three 
books.  It  was  derived  partly  from  the  sacred  books,  and  partly, 
according  to  his  own  confession,  from  popular  tradition,  not  war- 
ranted by  any  written  document1.  Eusebius,  in  the  Preface  to  his 
second  Book  of  the  Evangelical  Preparation2,  speaks  of  Manetho's 
works  as  copious,  and  this  accords  with  the  extracts  in  Josephus, 
which  relate  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherds  and  of  the  Jews  so 
much  at  length,  that  if  the  whole  Egyptian  history  were  treated 
with  the  same  fulness,  it  must  have  been  very  bulky — a  circum- 
stance which  by  preventing  its  transcription  may  have  been  the 
cause  of  its  reaching  us  only  in  extracts  and  quotations.  Josephus 
declares  that  he  gave  his  extracts  in  the  very  words  of  Manetho, 
and  they  show  a  ready  command  of  Greek  language ;  they  show 
also  the  desire  to  establish  a  correspondence  between  Greek  and 
Egyptian  history.  In  conformity  with  the  Argive  story,  he  makes 
Sethos  to  be  Egyptus  and  Armais  to  be  Danaus,  for  « liich  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  other  ground  than  the  hostile  relation  of 
the  brothers,  the  circumstances  of  the  Egyptian  history  and  the 
Argive  legend  being  in  every  other  respect  entirely  different. 

Although  the  History  of  Manetho  is  lost,  we  have  his  Dynasties 
tolerably  entire.  As  they  consisted  of  three  volumes,  the  same  num- 
ber with  the  Books  of  the  History,  it  is  probable  that  they  formed 
a  part  of  it.    They  have  reached  us  in  a  tabular  form,  but  we  know 

by  the  epithet  Ee/Jutt^,  which  the  introductory  Epistle  gives  to  Ptolemy — 
the  translation  of  Augustus,  and  never  found  among  the  titles  of  the  Ptole- 
mies.   It  was  probably  the  work  of  a  Christian. 

1  Joseph,  c.  Apion.,  1,  14,  16,  26,  where  Manetho  himself  distinguishes 
that  which  he  relates  ck  t£>v  nap'  At  y  v  it  t  t  o  i  s  y  p  a  p  n  d  rw  v,  and  i  < 
tuv  ddeairOTcof  fivdo\oyovfiivd)v. 

2  P.  44,  e«l  Viger. 

VOL.  II.  4 


74 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


not  whether  they  were  appended  in  this  form  to  the  continuous 
history,  or  whether  the  Christian  writers,  by  whom  they  have  been 
preserved  to  us,  extracted  and  arranged  them.  The  first  of  these 
was  Julius,  a  native  of  Africa,  thence  generally  called  Africanus, 
bishop  of  Emmaus  or  Nicopolis  in  Judaea,  a  man  of  learning, 
research  and  probity,  who  wrote  in  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
tury1. His  work  consisted  of  five  Books,  to  which  he  annexed  a 
Canon,  or  regular  series  of  years,  one  by  one,  with  the  events  of 
each  if  any  were  known.  His  object  was  to  establish  synchronisms 
between  the  history  of  the  Bible  and  that  of  the  heathen  nations; 
but  especially  of  the  Babylonians  and  Egyptians,  with  which  the 
history  of  the  Jews  is  most  closely  connected.  Had  we  a  copy  of 
his  work,  of  which  unfortunately  only  a  few  fragments  remain,  we 
should  know  very  accurately  the  dynasties  of  Manetho2.  But  it 
is  not  probable  that  he  had  read  the  historical  work  itself 3 ;  the 
notices  of  facte  which  he  gives  are  very  brief,  and  seem  to  have  been 
remarks,  appended  to  a  chronological  table.  His  successors  cer- 
tainly knew  Manetho  only  at  second-hand,  through  the  medium 
of  Africanus. 

The  first  of  these  was  Eusebius,  the  bishop  of  Csesarea,  who, 
about  100  years  later  than  Africanus,  undertook  a  more  compre- 
hensive work  of  the  same  kind,  which  owes  all  its  real  value  as 
Tegards  Egyptian  history  to  the  use  which  he  made  of  his  prede- 
cessor's materials.  It  consisted  of  two  parts,  the  first  of  which  was 
a  general  introduction  with  extracts  from  older  chronologers,  the 

1  Routh,  Rel.  Sac.  2,  221.  He  concluded  his  Chronicle  with  the  Emperor 
Macrinus,  a.d.  217.    Phot.  Myriob.  xxxiv.  p.  19.  ed.  Hoesch. 

2  He  says  of  himself,  when  he  was  in  Egypt,  that  he  had  procured  a 
sacred  book  by  Suphis,  king  of  the  fourth  dynasty  and  builder  of  the  Great 
Pyramid.  The  remains  of  Africanus  have  been  collected  by  Routh,  Reli- 
quiae Sacra?,  2,  245,  sec  ed.  alt. 

9  Two  different  recensions  of  it  appear  to  have  existed.  Kara  tw  hvTepav 
t/cSoaiv  'AfpiKavov,  Syncellus  remarks,  p.  56,  104,  ed.  Dind.  Routh  (2,  384) 
doubts  the  fact  of  a  second  edition,  at  least  of  the  whole  Chronicle. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


15 


second  a  Canon,  such  as  that  of  Africanus.  This  Canon  was  trans- 
lated by  Jerome,  and  with  the  exception  of  fragments  of  the  intro- 
ductory part  chiefly  preserved  by  Syncellus,  was  all  that  was  known 
of  it  till  the  discovery  of  the  Armenian  version  of  the  whole,  in 
the  Library  of  the  Convent  of  that  nation  at  Venice,  in  1820. 
Eusebius  carried  much  further  than  Africanus  had  done  the  attempt 
to  reduce  the  chronology  of  other  nations  to  the  standard  of  the 
Jews,  and  to  establish  a  general  system  of  synchronisms  for  ancient 
history — an  undertaking  which  could  be  effected  on  no  sound 
principle  for  times  preceding  the  Olympiads,  and  he  appears  not 
to  have  scrupled  arbitrary  and  even  unfair  expedients  to  attain 
this  end1. 

In  the  interval  between  Eusebius  and  Syncellus,  Egyptian  chro- 
nology had  been  handled  by  two  monks  of  that  country,  Pano- 
dorus  and  Anianus,  in  the  same  spirit,  the  scriptural  chronology 
being  made  the  standard  by  which  the  other  was  corrected.  Syn- 
cellus, a  Byzantine  monk,  of  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
wrote  a  general  chronology,  which  has  come  down  to  us  in  a 
tolerably  perfect  state,  and  was  executed  with  great  labor,  but  little 
sagacity,  and  with  the  same  implicit  deference  to  the  Jewish  author- 
ity. He  assumes  5500  b.c.  as  the  aera  of  the  Creation,  and  arran- 
ges all  his  dates  accordingly.  He  repeats  with  some  variations  the 
dynasties  of  Manetho,  not  having  before  him,  however,  certainly, 
the  original  work,  but  collating  the  lists  of  Africanus  and  Euse- 
bius. Having  mentioned  the  discrepancies  between  the  names  and 
dates  derived  from  Manetho  by  the  ecclesiastical  historians,  espe- 
cially in  regard  to  the  sovereign  under  whom  Joseph  ruled  Egypt 
and  Moses  led  forth  the  people,  he  says,  "I  have  therefore  deemed 
it  necessary  to  extract  and  compare  with  one  another  the  editions 

1  Bunsen,  ^gyptens  Stelle  in  der  Weltgeschichte,  1,  p.  118.  Syncellus, 

p.  62,  115,  ed.  Dind.,  says,  o  Etj<te/?ios  npos  tov  oixtiov  (tkottov  tovs  t>jj 
ircvTEKai$CK&rr)s  Svvavnlas  napa  ru  '  A.<ppiKavci)  tpepopivovs  Kara  tuv  i^KaiitKarriv  yzyovt- 

vai  \£ya.    See  also  p  65  121  Dind. 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


of  two  of  the  most  celebrated  men,  Africanus  and  Eusebius1."  It 
is  thus  at  the  third  hand  that  we  have  Manetho's  lists,  and  all  that 
criticism  can  attempt  is,  by  the  comparison  of  Eusebius  and  Syn- 
cellus,  to  ascertain  how  they  stood  in  the  text  of  Africanus. 

Comparing  Manetho  with  Herodotus,  we  find  that  the  latter  dis- 
tinctly excludes  from  the  belief  of  the  Egyptians  all  beings  partak- 
ing of  a  human  and  divine  descent2,  and  passes  from  the  gods  to 
the  reign  of  the  mortal  Menes.  But  Manetho,  after  the  reign  of 
Horus,  the  youngest  of  the  gods,  and  before  the  reign  of  Menes, 
the  first  of  mortals,  speaks  of  heroes  and  manes  as  exercising 
dominion3.  This  seems  au  example  of  the  reaction  of  Greek  upon 
Egyptian  mythology.  The  Greeks  interposed  between  gods  and 
the  actual  race  of  mortals — daemons,  who  were  the  men  of  the 
golden  age4;  manes,  who  were  the  men  of  the  silver  age;  and 
heroes  or  demigods,  who  united  the  divine  and  human  nature  ;  and 
the  Egyptians  were  probably  unwilling  not  to  have  a  corresponding 
period  of  mythic  history.  We  find  no  trace  of  these  two  classes  in 
the  Turin  papyrus,  nor  is  any  hieroglyphic  character  answering  to 
them  known. 

The  lists  of  Manetho  comprehend,  besides  the  period  of  gods, 
1  R  53,  99,  Dind. 

3  Ov  ccKOfUvoi  and  6cjv  yeviaOai  dvBpwnov  (2,143).  No^u£ov<ri  6'  w  Aiyvrrrioi 
ov6'  ijpuxrt  ovdcv  (2,  50).  Diodorus  (1,  44)  speaks  of  heroes,  as  reigning  along 
with  the  gods  in  a  period  of  16,000  years. 

*  Mera  viicvag  Kal  roif  rjpidiovg  itp&Tr\  fiaoi\c.ia  KarapiOpetTtii.  (Dyn.  1.) 

4  Hesiod,  W.  and  D.  120,  140,  155:— 

AvTap  inei  Ktv  tovto  yivos  Kara  yaTa  Ka\vipev 

Toi  piv  6a  i  povt  g  £  i  a  i. 

Of  the  men  of  the  silver  age : — 

Toi  piv  viro^dovioi  paKapeg  9vt}To\  KaXiovrat 

AtVTtpOl. 

Of  the  heroes : — 

'A.v6paw  h  p  w  w  v  Oeiov  yivos,  oi  KaXiovrai 

'H/4t0£Oi. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


17 


manes  and  heroes,  thirty  dynasties,  from  Menes  downward  to  the 
younger  Nectanebus.  In  some  of  them  the  names  of  all  the  kings 
are  given,  with  the  lengths  of  their  reigns,  in  years,  and  the  sums 
of  each  dynasty ;  in  others  the  names  do  not  now  appear,  but  the 
numbers  of  the  kings  and  sum  of  their  reigns  are  preserved.  The 
historical  facts  are  very  brief;  of  most  of  the  kings  nothing  what- 
ever is  recorded,  and  the  synchronisms  noted  appear  to  be  due  to 
the  Christian  chronologers,  rather  than  to  Manetho  himself.  The 
sum  of  all  the  dynasties  varies  according  to  our  present  sources 
from  4685  to  5049  years1 ;  the  number  of  kings  from  300  to  350, 
and  even  5002.  It  is  evidently  impossible  to  found  a  chronology 
on  such  a  basis,  but  Syncellus  tells  us  that  the  number  of  genera- 
tions3 included  in  the  30  dynasties  was  according  to  Manetho,  and 
to  the  old  Egyptian  Chronicle,  113;  and  the  whole  number  of 
years  3555*.  This  number  falls  much  short  of  what  the  summa- 
tion of  the  reigns  would  furnish  according  to  any  reading  of  the 
numbers,  but  is  nearly  the  same  as  113  generations  would  produce, 
at  an  average  of  32  years  to  each5. 

That  Manetho  would  have  access  to  all  the  documentary  and 
monumental  evidence  which  the  temples  and  public  records  sup- 
plied, we  cannot  doubt ;  but  that  from  these  it  was  practicable  in 
the  third  century  before  the  Christian  aera,  to  deduce  a  chronology 
extending  backward  to  the  foundation  of  the  monarchy,  is  by  no 
means  probable6.    The  imputation  of  having  wilfully  forged  names, 

1  Boeckh,  Manetho  und  die  Hundssternperiode,  p.  525. 
a  Bunsen,  1,  p.  119.  Germ.  p.  83. 
8  P.  52,  98,  ed.  Dindorf. 

4  Lepsius  (Einleitung,  1,  49V)  adopts  the  number  3555,  but  rejects  the  113 
generations,  which  number  he  thinks  to  be  derived  only  from  the  old 
Chronicle. 

6  Herodotus  (2,  142)  reckons  a  generation  at  thirty-three  years  and  one- 
third. 

6  Boeckh  has  endeavored  with  great  learning  and  ingenuity  to  show  that 
the  chronology  of  Manetho  is  not  historical  but  astronomical.  Boeckh 


78 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


with  which  to  fill  out  vacant  spaces  in  the  early  history  of  Egypt, 
has  been  refuted  by  the  very  close  conformity  between  his  lists  and 
the  monuments, — a  conformity  which  manifests  itself  at  the  early 
period  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids.  According  to  Lepsius,  of 
142  kings  of  the  Old  Monarchy,  i.  e.  those  who  reigned  before  the 
invasion  of  the  Hyksos,  80  are  found  on  the  monuments.  But  we 
may  reasonably  doubt,  whether  the  means  existed  in  his  time  to 
fix  the  date  of  the  reign  of  Menes,  or  carry  the  chronology  over  the 
troubled  period  of  the  Hyksos ;  and  when  we  compare  him  with 
the  monuments,  although  there  is  sufficient  accordance  to  vindicate 

makes  the  sum  of  all  the  thirty  dynasties  to  be  5366.  This  is  just  the  sum 
of  three  Sothiac  periods,  or  4383  years,  plus  983,  the  years  that  had  elapsed 
between  1322  b.c,  when  the  last  Sothiac  period  began,  and  339  B.C.,  the  last 
year  of  Nectanebus  II.  and  the  close  of  Mauetho's  thirtieth  dynasty.  Hence 
he  concludes  that  Manetho  had  arbitrarily  assumed  the  historical  period  of 
Egypt  to  have  begun  with  a  Sothiac  period,  and  accommodated  his  chro- 
nology to  that  assumption.  He  argues  the  probability  of  this,  from  the  fact 
that  the  mythic  age  ends  with  the  17th  Sothiac  period  (24,837  years), 
whence  the  historical  which  succeeds  it  would  naturally  begin  with  ano- 
ther, and  the  time  between  Menes  and  1322  b.c.  be  so  distributed  as  to  fill 
up  two.  But  Manetho,  as  reported  by  Africanus  and  Eusebias,  makes  the 
time  before  Menes  24,900  years,  and  says  nothing  of  the  reigns  of  the  gods, 
manes  and  heroes  occupying  a  certain  number  of  Sothiac  periods.  This  is 
derived  from  the  Old  Chronicle  mentioned  before ;  and  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  high  priest  of  Sebennytus  admitted  any  such  principle  into  his 
ehronology  of  the  mythic  age.  Consequently  the  presumption  that  lie  did 
so  in  the  historic  times  falls  to  the  ground.  The  number  5366  is  not 
obtained  without  many  alterations,  which,  if  not  arbitrary,  derive  their 
probability  only  from  the  supposition  that  the  sum  is  right.  Even  were  the 
number  certain,  it  might  be  merely  an  accidental  coincidence  that  it 
admitted  of  division  into  two  Sothiac  periods  and  983  years. 

The  recent  work  of  Lesueur  (Chronologie  des  Rois  d'Egypte,  1848), 
crowned  by  the  French  Academy,  assumes  as  its  basis  the  Old  Chronicle, 
which  I  think  Lepsius  has  satisfactorily  shown  to  be  an  arbitrary  adapta- 
tion of  Manetho's  true  dates,  at  once  to  the  Sothiac  period  and  the  Hebrew 
chronology. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


19 


his  integrity,  there  is  also  sufficient  discrepancy  to  prevent  implicit 
reliance  in  the  absence  of  monuments.  Had  the  series  of  monu- 
ments, indeed,  inscribed  with  the  names  pf  the  kings  and  years  of 
their  reigns  been  ever  so  complete,  it  could  not  alone  have  fur- 
nished a  chronology,  because  the  Egyptians  do  not  appear  at  any 
time  to  have  reckoned  in  their  public  monuments,  by  an  (era,  like 
that  of  the  Olympiads,  but  only  to  have  dated  events,  as  we  date 
acts  of  parliament,  by  the  years  of  the  king's  reign. 

Syncellus1  quotes  an  old  Chronicle,  which  he  says  was  in  vogue 
among  the  Egyptians,  in  which  the  period  before  the  16th  dynasty 
of  Manetho  is  allotted  to  the  gods  and  demigods  with  15  genera- 
tions of  the  Cynic  circle.  It  was  designed  to  bring  the  work  of  the 
historical  Manetho  into  conformity  with  the  Sothiac  or  Cynic 
period,  and  comprehends  36,525  years,  or  25  of  these  periods, 
which  were  each  of  1451  years.  The  number  25  was  the  length 
of  the  life  of  Apis2.  The  Laterculus,  as  it  is  called,  of  Syncellus,  is 
another  arbitrary  arrangement  of  Egyptian  chronology,  and  the 
Sothis,  which  professes  to  be  the  work  of  Manetho,  is  manifestly 
spurious. 

If  we  suppose  that  an  accurate  record  of  the  successive  reigns 
and  the  length  of  each  was  preserved  from  the  very  commencement 
of  the  monarchy,  we  might  easily  deduce  the  chronology  of  the 
whole  interval  from  Menes  to  Xectanebus,  by  adding  together  the 
lengths  of  all  the  reigns.  But  this  implies  that  all  the  reigns  were 
consecutive ;  that  there  either  were  no  joint  or  rival  sovereignties, 
or  that  if  they  existed,  only  one  was  fixed  on  as  the  legitimate 
monarch,  and  his  years  alone  entered  in  the  succession.  A  history 
of  Great  Britain  in  which  the  years  of  the  kings  of  England  and 
Scotland  before  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  or  the  Stuart  and  the 

1  P.  51,  95,  Dind. 

3  See  vol.  i.  p.  282.  Lepsius  has  very  fully  investigated  the  relation  in 
which  the  spurious  works,  the  Sothis,  and  the  Old  Chronicle,  stand  to  the 
genuine  work  of  Manetho  (Einleituug,  1,  p.  413-460). 


80 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Brunswick  princes  since  the  Revolution,  were  added  together,  would 
present  a  very  false  chronology.  To  deduce  an  Egyptian  chrono- 
logy, therefore,  from  the  lists  of  Manetho,  we  must  be  assured  that 
his  reigns  are  all  strictly  consecutive,  and  that  no  period  has  been 
reckoned  twice  over.  Eusebius  in  the  Armenian  version  of  his 
Chronicle  having  urged  that  it  is  reasonable  to  reduce  the  20,000 
years  claimed  by  the  Egyptians  to  as  many  months,  in  order  to 
make  them  suit  with  the  Hebrew  chronology,  thus  proceeds :  "  If 
the  length  of  time  is  still  in  excess,  we  should  carefully  consider 
that  perhaps  several  Egyptian  kings  existed  in  one  and  the  same 
age ;  for  they  say  that  Thinites  and  Memphites  reigned,  and  Saites 
and  Ethiopians  and  others,  at  the  same  time.  Other  kings  also 
appear  to  have  reigned  in  other  places,  and  these  dynasties  to  have 
confined  themselves  each  to  its  own  nome  ;  so  that  single  kings  did 
not  reign  successively,  but  one  in  one  place,  another  in  another  at 
the  same  time."  As  this  is  introduced  as  a  last  resource  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  reducing  the  Egyptian  to  the  Hebrew  chrono- 
logy, we  cannot  regard  it  as  of  any  authority.  No  other  ancient 
author  gives  us  reason  to  suppose,  that  after  the  time  of  Menes, 
Egypt  was  divided,  except  under  extraordinary  circumstances,  the 
mention  of  which  confirms  the  belief  that  unity  was  the  rule  of  the 
monarchy.  The  Greek  and  Roman  writers  do  not  even  notice  the 
remarkable  exception  of  the  period  of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  when, 
according  to  Manetho,  a  tributary  dynasty  (the  seventeenth)  existed 
at  Thebes,  contemporaneous  with  the  Shepherd  dynasty  which 
exercised  sovereignty  at  Memphis.  In  Scripture,  also,  we  find  one 
Pharaoh  spoken  of  as  ruling  in  Egypt,  whether  in  the  early  age  of 
Abraham,  during  the  oppression  of  the  Jews,  in  the  reign  of  Solo- 
mon, or  in  the  time  of  the  later  prophets.  It  is  also  difficult  to 
conceive  that  independent  dynasties  could  co-exist  without  civil  war, 
or  subordinate  dynasties  without  rebellion,  neither  of  which  can  be 
traced  in  the  Egyptian  annals1.  Notwithstanding  these  difficulties, 
1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  98. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


81 


we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  some  great  error  exists  in  the 
numbers  of  Manetho  as  they  now  stand,  since  the  summation  of 
the  reigns  of  his  kings  exceeds  by  nearly  1500  years  the  duration 
assigued  to  them. 

Eratosthenes,  whom  we  have  already  mentioned,  drew  up  in  the 
reign  of  the  second  Ptolemy1  a  catalogue  of  Theban  kings,  which 
Syncellus  has  incorporated  in  his  work.  According  to  Apollo- 
dorus,  from  whom  Syncellus  immediately  derived  his  information, 
Eratosthenes  had  received  their  names  from  the  priests  or  hiero- 
grammats  of  Thebes,  and  at  the  command  of  the  king  had 
expressed  their  meaning  in  Greek.  These  Theban  kings  are  38  in 
number,  and  their  united  reigns  amounted  to  1076  years.  The 
name  of  Theban  is  that  by  which  he  designates  them  collectively 
and  individually,  without  any  distinction  of  dynasty,  though  he 
notices  of  the  first  that  he  was  a  Thinite,  and  of  the  sixth  that  he 
was  a  Memphite.  The  Greek  interpretations  of  the  Egyptian  names 
have  a  general  conformity  with  the  Coptic  language,  but  the  cor- 
ruption which  they  have  suffered  in  transcription  makes  it  often 
impossible  to  trace  it.  It  appears  most  probable  that  the  list  of 
Eratosthenes  was  constructed,  though  more  scientifically,  yet  upon 
the  same  principle  as  those  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  that  of 
assigning  authors  to  the  most  remarkable  monuments,  and  intro- 
ducing the  names  of  remarkable  personages.  Thus  it  includes 
Menes  the  founder  of  the  monarchy,  the  builders  of  the  Pyramids, 
Apappus  who  lived  100  years,  Nitocris  the  only  queen,  Ammene- 
mes  the  author  of  the  Labyrinth,  Mares  or  Maris,  the  Moeris  of  the 
other  Greeks ;  Phrouro  or  Neilos,  the  author  of  the  name  of  the 
river.  The  name  of  Theban  kings  seems  equivalent  to  earliest,  the 
Greeks  believing  that  Egypt  was  once  confined  to  Thebes2.  Whence 

1  Eratosthenes  was  born  2*5  b.c.  See  Clinton,  Fasti  Hellenici,  sub 
anno. 

3  To  6'  u>v  iraXai  alQfj.^ai  AiyvnTos  £K<i\eiTO  (Her.  2.  15).  'Ap^aiov  f)  Atyvrrroj 
Qt~i,8ai  KaX.viievai  (Arist  Meteor.  1,  14). 

4* 


82 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  other  names  were  derived  it  is  difficult  to  say ;  they  do  not 
appear  to  be  of  Greek  invention.  When  we  contrast  the  catalogue 
of  Eratosthenes  with  the  dynasties  of  Manetho,  they  appear  to  have 
had  a  common  or  kindred  origin.  Both  begin  with  Menes  the 
Thinite,  to  whom  his  son  Athothis  succeeds  ;  the  names  in  Mane- 
tho, Suphis  Suphis  (builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid),  Mencheres,  are 
in  Eratosthenes  Saophis,  Saophis  II.  and  Moscheres  ;  though  Erato- 
sthenes takes  no  notice  of  the  erection  of  the  Pyramids.  Phiops 
according  to  Manetho,  Apappus  according  to  Eratosthenes,  reigns 
100  years ;  in  each  we  have  a  solitary  example  of  a  queen  Nito- 
cris,  who  succeeds  at  the  interval  of  a  single  reign  the  centenarian 
Phiops  or  Apappus.  The  names  of  Siam?nenemes,  Sistosis,  3fares, 
towards  the  end  of  the  list  of  Eratosthenes,  do  not  differ  so  widely 
from  the  Ammene?nes,  Sesostris,  Lamares  or  Ameres  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty  of  Manetho,  but  that  the  variation  may  be  explained  by 
the  corruptions  of  transcribers  and  the  difficulty  of  representing 
Egyptian  names  in  Greek  orthography. 

It  was  acutely  observed  by  Bunsen,  that  where  a  correspondence 
exists  between  the  names  of  Eratosthenes  and  those  of  Manetho, 
it  is  always  in  the  dynasties  which  the  latter  calls  Theban  or  Mem- 
phite  ;  and  that  where  the  names  are  lost,  the  numbers  show  that 
there  has  been  no  such  correspondence  in  the  others.  And  hence 
he  infers  that  only  those  who  belonged  to  the  two  ancient  capitals 
of  Egypt  were  the  true  sovereigns  of  the  country,  whose  reigns 
give  its  real  chronology ;  while  the  others  (the  Elephantinites, 
Heracleopolites,  Xoites),  though  called  kings,  never  exercised  a 
real  supremacy,  and  being  contemporaneous  with  the  Thebans  or 
Memphites,  do  not  enter  into  the  chronological  reckoning.  Not- 
withstanding the  ability  with  which  this  attempt  to  reconcile 
Eratosthenes  and  Manetho  is  supported,  we  cannot  feel  such  confi- 
dence in  its  soundness  as  to  make  it  the  basis  of  a  history.  We 
shall  therefore  treat  the  dynasties  of  the  latter  as  being,  what  he 
evidently  considered  them  to  be,  successive,  unless  where  there  is 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


83 


some  internal  or  independent  evidence  of  error ;  admitting  at  the 
same  time  that  no  great  reliance  can  be  placed  on  a  chronology 
which  professes  to  ascend  to  the  very  commencement  of  the  reign 
of  mortal  kings  in  Egypt.  But  there  appears  no  evidence  that 
Manetho  wilfully  tampered  with  facts  known  to  him,  to  favor 
either  an  astronomical  or  an  historical  theory  ;  his  system  may  be 
baseless,  but  it  is  not  fictitious. 

The  authority  of  all  that  was  written  in  the  Ptolemaic  age,  or 
subsequently,  whether  by  natives  or  foreigners,  respecting  Egyp- 
tian history  and  chronology,  must  depend  very  much  on  the  num- 
ber and  quality  of  the  ancient  writings  which  were  extant  at  that 
period.  Herodotus  speaks  only  of  a  papyrus,  from  which  the 
names  of  330  kings  were  read  to  him  by  the  priests  ;  but  it  does 
not  appear  whether  the  historical  facts  which  they  detailed  to  him 
in  connexion  with  some  of  these  names  were  derived  from  the 
same  source1.  The  Egyptians  were  celebrated  among  ancient 
nations  for  their  historical  knowledge2,  the  natural  consequence  of 
the  number  and  antiquity  of  their  monuments,  the  early  possession 
and  wide  diffusion  of  the  art  of  writing,  and  the  unchanging,  tra- 
ditionary character  of  all  their  usages  and  institutions.  According 
to  Diodorus3  it  had  been  the  practice  of  the  priests,  from  ancient 
times,  to  record  and  hand  down  to  their  successors  the  stature  and 
qualities  of  their  kings  and  the  events  of  each  reign.  "We  have 
seen  that  such  records  existed  in  the  time  of  Herodotus ;  they 
escaped  the  devastation  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses;  for  Diodorus* 
mentions  that  Artaxerxes,  when  he  recovered  the  dominion  of  the 

1  2,  142.  He  quotes  "the  Egyptians  and  the  priests"  as  joint  authorities 
for  these  details. 

2  Her.  2,  77.  Prisca  doctrina  pollentes  -^Egyptii.  Apuleius,  Metam.  xi. 
p.  764. 

s  1,  44. 

4  16,  51.  'hvay(>a<pai  is  the  title  by  which  the  historical  annals  are  usually 
spoken  of.    See  Bunsen,  1,  p.  27.  Diod.  u.  s. 


84 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


country  from  Nectanebus,  carried  off  the  records  from  the  ancient 
temples,  which  the  priests  redeemed  from  Bagoas  by  the  payment 
of  a  large  sum  ;  and  nothing  had  occurred  from  this  time  to  the 
age  of  Manetho  and  Eratosthenes,  to  occasion  any  violent  and 
general  destruction  of  them.  Of  their  absolute  age  we  can  have 
no  evidence  ;  it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  contemporaneous 
documents  from  the  foundation  or  first  reigns  of  the  monarchy 
existed  in  the  Ptolemaic  age  ;  what  was  read  to  Herodotus  was 
evidently  an  historical  and  genealogical  table,  not  a  record.  And 
analogy  would  lead  us  to  suppose,  that  from  time  to  time  the 
information  contained  in  obsolete  and  perishing  documents  would 
be  transcribed  and  incorporated  in  new  ones,  and  thus  the  chain 
of  evidence  be  prolonged  from  age  to  age.  In  this  way  it  is  not 
incredible,  that  our  historical  knowledge  of  Egypt  may  be  carried 
far  up  towards  the  commencement  of  the  monarchy,  allowance 
being  made,  first  for  the  gaps  which  time  and  periods  of  internal 
confusion  may  have  produced,  and  next  for  the  changes  which 
might  take  place  in  the  process  of  transcription.  The  means  of 
preserving  such  records  were  not  wanting  in  the  very  earliest  times  ; 
the  hieroglyphic  character  was  in  use  at  the  erection  of  the  Pyra- 
mids, and  the  reed-pen  and  inkstand,  and  scribes  employed  in 
writing,  appear  among  the  sculptures  in  the  tombs  of  Gizeh,  which 
are  contemporaneous  with  the  Pyramids  themselves1. 

Recently  among  the  papyri  in  the  hieratic  character,  several 
properly  historical  documents  have  been  found  ;  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  is  the  papyrus  of  Sallier,  which  appears  to  contain  a 
narrative  of  the  wars  of  Rameses-Sesostris,  and  to  be  of  the  same 
age.  Other  fragments  of  an  historical  nature  relate  to  the  reigns 
of  Rameses  IX.,  and  Thothmes  III.,  and  Lepsius  conjectures  that 
one,  from  its  archaic  style,  may  even  belong  to  the  Old  Monarchy. 
None  of  them  have  been  fully  read,  but  they  are  received  as  evi- 

1  See  Lepsius,  Denkmaler,  Abth.  ii.  B.  1,  19. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


85 


dence  by  those  most  competent  to  judge,  and  may  hereafter 
furnish  valuable  materials  for  history1. 

It  is  probable  that  the  priests  of  Memphis  and  Thebes  differed 
in  their  representations  of  early  history,  and  that  each  sought  to 
extol  the  glory  of  their  own  city.  How  otherwise  can  we  account 
for  it,  that  while  Herodotus  makes  Menes  to  be  the  founder  of 
Memphis,  and  consequently  this  capital  to  be  coaeval  with  the 
monarchy,  Diodorus  attributes  its  foundation  to  Uchoreus,  eighth 
in  descent  from  Osymandyas  or  Busiris  II.  ?  The  history  of  Hero- 
dotus turns  about  Memphis  as  a  centre ;  he  mentions  Thebes  only 
incidentally,  and  does  not  describe  or  allude  to  one  of  its  monu- 
ments. Diodorus,  on  the  contrary,  is  full  in  his  description  of 
Thebes,  and  says  little  of  Memphis.  Herodotus  went  to  Thebes, 
to  ascertain  whether  the  accounts  of  the  priests  corresponded  with 
what  he  had  heard  at  Memphis,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  satis- 
fied with  the  agreement  ;  but  his  visit  must  have  been  short  and  his 
inquiries  superficial,  or  he  would  have  described  Thebes  more  fully. 

Besides  properly  historical  documents,  which  appear  to  have 
been  the  work  of  the  priests  and  preserved  in  the  temples,  there 
were  others,  called  in  a  peculiar  sense  sacred  books,  from  which 
many  materials  for  illustrating  and  completing  history  might  be 
derived.  They  are  enumerated  in  a  passage  of  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus2 ; — "  In  the  sacred  ceremonies  of  the  Egyptians,"  says  he, 
"  first  of  all  the  Singer  comes  forth,  bearing  one  of  the  instruments 
of  music.  He  must  know  by  heart3  two  of  the  books  of  Hermes, 
one  of  which  contains  the  hymns  of  the  gods,  the  other  the  allot- 
ment of  the  king's  life4.    Xext  to  the  singer  comes  the  Horoscojjus, 

1  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  53.  Select  Papyri  in  the  hieratic  character  from 
the  collection  in  the  British  Museum,  Lonl.  1844. 

3  Strom.  6,  4,  p.  756.  ed.  Potter. 

*  'AvciXr,(f>ivai.  See  Plut.  Agesil.  C  24.  Aoyov  dvayvovs  iv  /?i'/?Aw  Sv  fyeAAs 
Xeytiv  dv  a\a(3  <ov  *  AvaavSpos  iv  roi  oinx-K 

4  'Fji\oyiGjiov  0aGt\iKov  fiiov.    There  is  no  authority  for  rendering  WXoyiauSs 


86 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


who  carries  in  his  hand  a  horologium1  and  a  palm-branch,  symbols 
of  astronomy.  He,  they  say,  must  always  have  at  his  tongue's 
end  those  of  the  books  of  Hermes  which  are  astronomical,  being 
four  in  number ;  one  of  which  relates  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
stars  which  appear  to  be  fixed ;  one  respecting  the  conjunctions  of 
the  sun  and  moon,  and  her  illuminations;  the  remaining  one 
respecting  the  risings  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Next  comes  forth 
the  Hierogrammat,  having  feathers  on  his  head  and  a  book  in  his 
hand,  with  a  rectangular  case  (xavwv)  in  which  is  contained  writ- 
ing-ink and  the  reed  with  which  they  write.  He  must  know  the 
hieroglyphics,  as  they  are  called,  and  what  relates  to  cosmography 
and  geography,  the  order  of  the  sun  and  moon  and  the  five 
planets,  and  the  topography  of  Egypt  and  the  description  of  the 
Nile  ;  and  the  enumeration  of  the  furniture  of  the  temples  and  the 
lands  that  have  been  dedicated  to  them  ;  and  concerning  the 
measures  and  the  sacred  utensils.  After  those  already  mentioned 
comes  the  Stolistes,  having  the  cubit  of  justice2  and  the  vessel  for 
pouring  libations.  He  knows  all  the  books  which  relate  to  educa- 
tion and  to  the  slaughter  of  victims.  There  are  ten  which  have 
reference  to  the  honor  paid  to  their  gods,  and  comprehend  the 
Egyptian  religion,  e.  gr.  of  sacrifices,  first  fruits,  hymns,  prayers, 
processions,  festivals  and  the  like.  After  all  these  comes  forth  the 
Propketes3,  carrying  openly  in  his  bosom  the  vessel  of  water,  fol- 

distribution,  yet  this  seems  to  be  the  code  by  which  the  occupations  of  the 
sovereign  were  regulated.    See  Diod.  1,  70.    Ov  n6vov  tov  xpwaTl^clv  xpiveiv 

rjv  Kaipds  u}ptff[xevos}  d\\a  Kal  tov  ntpnrarriaai  Kal  \ovaaaBai  Kal  KOifjrjdrjvat  [icto.  ri/J 
yvvaiKOS  Kal  kclB6\ov  twi>  Kara  tov  pirn  Trparrojieviov  cnravTOiv. 

1  'Qn  >\6yiov  is  generally  rendered  Sun-dial  (see  vol.  i.  p.  276);  but  may  it 
not  mean  a  list  of  the  hours  of  the  day  with  the  influences  of  the  constella- 
tions during  each  (see  vol.  i.  p.  292),  according  to  the  analogy  of  unvoXoyiov, 
an  almanac  of  the  month  ? 

3  The  standard  measure  of  length,  like  the  "Shekel  of  the  Sanctuary," 
the  standard  of  weight  among  the  Jews.    (Exod.  xxx.  13.    See  vol.  i.  p.  290.) 

8  UpuipfiT^s  in  Greek  has  no  reference  to  prediction,  as  we  might  suppose 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


87 


lowed  by  those  who  carried  the  loaves  which  were  brought  forth1. 
The  prophetes,  as  being  the  president  of  the  temple,  gets  by  heart 
the  ten  books  which  arc  called  hieratic  ;  they  contain  what  relates 
to  the  laws  and  the  gods,  and  the  whole  education  of  the  priests ; 
for  the  prophetes  among  the  Egyptians  presides  also  over  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  revenues.  The  books  of  Hermes  therefore  which 
are  absolutely  necessary  are  forty-two  ;  of  which  the  persons  already 
mentioned  learn  thirty -six  by  heart,  containing  the  whole  philoso- 
phy of  the  Egyptians.  The  remaining  six  the  Pastophori2  learn  by 
heart,  being  medical,  respecting  the  structure  of  the  body,  and 
diseases,  and  instruments,  and  drugs,  and  the  eyes,  and  finally 
female  diseases3."  There  is  not  one  among  these  works,  however 
remote  its  subject  may  appear  from  history,  which  might  not  inci- 
dentally furnish  historical  illustration,  especially  the  description  of 
Egypt  and  the  Nile,  and  the  account  of  religion  and  the  laws  con- 
nected with  it.  Since  they  appear  to  have  been  in  existence  in  the 
age  of  Clemens,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  after  Christ, 
it  is  not  beyond  hope  that  a  portion  of  them  may  yet  be  found 
among  the  many  unexamined  papyri  which  have  been  brought 
from  Egypt,  or  among  the  treasures  of  some  hitherto  unopened 
grave.    As  the  names  of  many  of  their  legislators  were  preserved4, 

from  our  own  use  of  prophet.  It  was  his  office  to  give  forth  the  declarations 
of  the  god,  which  might  be  prophetic  or  otherwise.    (Her.  8,  135.) 

1  01  rrjv  tK-rcfixpiv  rwv  apruiv  0a<rrd$ovT£s.  Offerings  of  loaves  or  cakes  to  the 
gods  are  common  on  the  monuments.  (Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  tav.  xxxiii. 
2.)  Compare  the  aproi  rfc  Trpoafjpas,  1  Kings,  vii.  48,  of  the  Jewish  Sanc- 
tuary. 

9  The  Pastophori  were  an  inferior  order  of  priests,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
carry  about  the  shrines  (raarot)  or  images  of  the  gods  on  a  bari  or  a  feretrum 
in  solemn  processions. 

3  The  necessity  of  learning  so  much  by  heart,  notwithstanding  the 
copiousness  of  written  books,  will  explain  what  Herodotus  says  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, fivrtfthv  iiraoKtavoi  li/Opdnun  iravruv  /*dWru.    (2,  77.) 

4  Diod.  1,  94. 


88 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


historical  facts  and  anecdotes  must  have  been  handed  down  along 
with  them. 

The  Hieratical  Canon  of  Turin  is  a  chronological  rather  than  an 
historical  document1.  As  already  mentioned  it  begins  with  the 
dynasties  of  the  gods,  to  whom  years  are  assigned  by  tens  of  thou- 
sands, and  from  them  comes  down  to  Menes  the  founder  of  the 
monarchy.  It  contained  probably  the  titular  shields  of  250  kings* 
in  its  entire  state,  and  those  of  119  are  still  more  or  less  legible. 
The  difficulty  which  the  discrepancy  between  Manetho  and  Erato- 
sthenes has  occasioned  is  not  removed,  but  increased,  by  the  dis- 
covery of  this  document,  and  from  its  mutilated  state  its  arrange- 
ment is  doubtful.  There  exist  also  fragments  of  papyri  contain- 
ing accounts  of  receipt  and  expenditure  of  the  date  of  the  18th 
and  19th  dynasties,  which  from  the  occurrence  of  the  names  of 
reigning  sovereigns,  and  the  years  of  their  reigns,  are  valuable  as 
subsidiary  to  history3.  The  majority  of  the  papyri,  however,  which 
have  been  preserved  relate  to  the  theology  of  the  Egyptians,  describ- 
ing the  state  and  changes  of  the  soul  after  death,  for  which  reason 
they  were  so  commonly  placed  in  tombs  and  the  cases  of  the  mum- 
mies. Even  though  they  contain  no  properly  historical  informa- 
tion, by  their  early  date,  and  the  proof  which  they  exhibit  of  the 
existence  of  a  theological  system  in  Egypt,  fully  developed  and 
generally  received,  they  give  collateral  evidence  to  the  accounts  of 
the  high  antiquity  of  its  arts  and  institutions.  There  appear  also 
to  be  collections  of  hymns,  from  which  when  deciphered  light  may 
be  thrown  on  history  as  well  as  theology 

1  It  has  been  published  according  to  his  own  arrangement  of  the  frag- 
ments by  Lepsius  in  his  Auswahl.  The  names  are  given  in  the  hiero- 
glyphic character  in  Lesueur's  Chronologie,  with  facsimiles  of  the  original. 

3  Bunsen's  Egypt.  Eng.  p.  50.    Birch,  Tr.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  1,  201. 

*  Champollion,  Lettre  a  M.  le  Due  de  Blacas,  2,  pp.  80,  81,  85,  95. 

4  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  49,  speaks  of  a  collection  of  such  hymns  of  the 
age  of  Rameses  IX. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


89 


A  passage  in  Diodorus  proves  that  the  Egyptians  had  popular 
poetry  in  which  the  exploits  of  their  kings  were  celebrated.  Speak- 
ing of  the  reign  of  Sesoosis,  he  says,  "  that  not  only  did  the  Greek 
historians  differ  among  themselves  respecting  him,  but  even  in 
Egypt  the  priests  and  those  who  celebrated  him  in  song  did  not 
agree1."  As  a  distinction  is  here  made  between  the  priestly  and 
the  poetical  literature,  these  songs  must  have  been  something  dif- 
ferent from  those  which  Clemens  describes  the  ^PJos  or  singer  as 
repeating,  and  several  of  the  circumstances  which  Diodorus  goes 
on  to  mention  have  the  air  of  being  such  exaggerations  as  a  popu- 
lar poetical  literature  deals  in.  Rosellini  has  suggested,  that  in  the 
papyrus  of  Sallier  we  have  a  poetical  account  of  the  military 
exploits  of  Sesostris ;  and  that  the  long  inscription  relating  to 
Rameses  IV.  at  Medinet  Aboo  is  rather  a  song  than  an  historical 
narrative2. 

No  nation  has  left  in  its  inscribed  monuments  such  ample  materials 
for  history  as  the  Egyptians  ;  the  statues  of  their  kings  are  generally 
inscribed  with  their  names  ;  the  walls  of  their  palaces  exhibit  their 
exploits,  commonly  accompanied  with  the  year  of  their  reigns; 
works  of  art  executed  for  private  individuals  and  the  tombs  of  pub- 
lic functionaries  frequently  contain  the  name  of  the  reigning  sove- 
reign. But  we  commonly  derive  no  information  from  these  sources 
as  to  the  succession  and  relative  position  of  the  sovereigns,  or  their 
absolute  place  in  a  general  system  of  chronology.  There  are  two 
remarkable  monuments,  however,  Avhich  appear  to  give  a  certain 
number  of  kings  in  the  order  of  their  succession,  the  Tablet  of 
Abydos3  and  the  Tablet  of  Karnak4.  The  building  to  which  the 
former  belonged  was  built  or  repaired  by  Rameses  the  Great  (III.), 
and  he  is  represented  on  the  monument  sitting  on  his  throne  and 
contemplating  a  double  series  of  twenty-six  shields  of  his  predeces- 

1  2,  53.  K-.ii  t  5i*  KaT  Aiyvirroy  o"  rt  IspcTg  Kat  oi  6ia  j  dSfjs  airdy 
2yK6jfua£oi>r£;,  oiy  b^o\oyovfieva  ^eyov&iv. 

3  Motu  Stor.  iv.  91.  '  See  voL  i.  p.  38.  4  Vol.  i.  p.  146. 


90 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


sors.  The  lowest  line  of  the  monument  contains  only  a  repetition  of 
his  own  name  and  titles.  The  conclusion  which  was  at  first  drawn 
from  this  monument,  that  it  exhibited  a  regnal  succession  of  fifty- 
two  monarchs  anterior  to  Rameses  the  Great,  has  not  indeed  been 
realized,  nor  has  the  anticipated  correspondence  been  established 
between  the  tablet  and  the  lists  of  Manetho,  except  for  a  few  reigns 
in  the  later  part.  Still  its  information  is  most  important  for 
Egyptian  history.  The  tablet  of  Karnak  is  a  representation  of 
Thothmes  III.  offering  gifts  to  a  series  of  sixty -one  kings,  disposed 
in  four  lines  around  the  walls.  This  sovereign  himself  is  the  forty- 
fourth  of  the  tablet  of  Abydos,  and  it  might  have  been  expected 
that  we  should  find  here  his  predecessors  on  that  tablet,  which,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  case.  But  though  we  have  been  disappointed  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  from  the  combination  of  these  two  monuments 
an  authentic  regnal  succession  from  Rameses  the  Great  upwards, 
and  the  tablet  of  Karnak,  like  that  of  Abydos,  cannot  be  brought 
into  exact  correspondence  with  Manetho,  there  are  evidently  materials 
in  these  monuments  for  the  construction  of  history,  when  their  true 
relation  has  been  ascertained.  The  grottos  of  Benihassan  and 
Qoorneh  contain  some  successions,  corresponding  with  a  part  of  the 
tablet  of  Abydos,  and  other  short  successions  are  found  at  Thebes1, 
but  in  none  is  a  perfect  correspondence  discernible.  At  Tel  Ainarna 
and  at  Thebes  is  found  a  succession  of  several  kings  whose  names 
do  not  agree  with  any  of  the  dynasties  of  Manetho,  and  who  are 
supposed,  from  their  physiognomy  and  the  emblems  which  accom- 
pany them,  to  belong  to  a  foreign  race,  professors  of  a  peculiar 
religion,  apparently  worshippers2  of  the  Sun. 

The  earliest  event  in  Egyptian  history  which  can  be  connected 
with  a  known  date  in  that  of  any  other  country,  is  the  invasion  of 

1  Rosellini,  M.  &  1,  205. 

2  Wilkinson,  Modern  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  72,  216,  255.  Trans.  Roy. 
Soc.  Lit.  2nd  series,  1,  140. 


EGYPTIAN  AUTHORITIES. 


91 


Judaea  by  Shishak  or  Sheshonk  in  the  reign  of  Rehoboam.  As  the 
chronology  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  is  in  this  age  definite  and 
authentic,  we  are  able  to  fix  the  reign  of  Sheshonk  in  years  before 
the  Christian  sera.  But  this  does  not  enable  us  to  carry  backward 
an  exact  chronology  through  all  the  reigns  of  his  predecessors, 
owing  to  the  uncertainty  and  interruption  of  the  successions,  both 
in  the  MSS.  and  in  the  monuments ;  and  in  the  previous  part  of 
the  Jewish  history,  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt  are  only  mentione'd  by 
the  common  name  of  Pharaoh,  which  would  not  suffice  for  their 
identification,  even  if  the  Jewish  chronology  itself  were  in  early 
ages  certain.  Could  we,  however,  connect  one  of  those  astrono- 
mical phaenomena,  whose  recurrence  is  invariable,  to  however 
remote  a  period  we  ascend,  with  the  reign  of  any  of  the  old  Egyp- 
tian kings,  we  should  have  a  fixed  point  in  the  flux  of  time  from 
which  we  might  reckon  upwards  and  downwards  with  considerable 
security.  Whether  any  such  fixed  point  is  to  be  found  is  a  matter 
for  subsequent  inquiry. 

Syncellus,  we  have  seen,  assigns  3555  years  as  the  duration  of 
Marretho's  thirty  dynasties.  These  being  Egyptian  years  are  equi- 
valent to  3553  Julian  years1,  and  added  to  339  b.c,  when  his  30th 
dynasty  expired2,  give  3892  b.c.  as  the  commencement  of  the  reign 
of  Menes.  There  is  nothing  incredible  in  such  an  antiquity  of  the 
Egyptian  monarchy ;  but  from  what  has  been  already  said,  and 
from  what  will  appear  in  our  further  investigations,  it  cannot  be 
regarded  as  historically  proved. 

The  following  history  is  divided  into  Three  Books,  each  com- 
prising a  period  designated  respectively  as  the  Old,  the  Middle, 
and  the  Xew  Monarchy.  The  first  extends  from  the  Foundation 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Menes  to  the  Invasion  of  the  Hyksos.  The 
second,  from  the  Conquest  of  Lower  Egypt  by  the  Ilvksos  and  the 
Establishment  of  a  dependent  Kingdom  at  Thebes,  to  the  Expulsion 
1  Lep8ius,  Einleittmg,  1,  p.  499. 

3  Boeckh,  Manotho  und  die  Hundssternperiode,  Abschn.  2,  §  18, 19. 


92 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  the  Hyksos.  The  third,  from  the  Re-establishment  of  the 
Monarchy  by  Amosis  to  the  Final  Conquest  by  Persia1.  The 
Dynasties  of  Manetho  have  been  employed  as  subdivisions,  accord- 
ing to  the  text  of  Africanus,  because,  however  doubtful  the  reading 
or  the  numbers  may  be,  no  better  authority  exists. 

a  These  designations  are  due,  I  believe,  to  Bunsen  and  Lepsius.  Heeren, 
however  (Ideen,  2,  2,  p.  551,  note,  Germ.),  had  clearly  distinguished  the  two 
first  periods;  but  he  subdivides  the  third  into  the  flourishing  period  1500- 
700  b.c,  and  the  period  of  decline  700  b.c.  to  the  Persian  Conquest. 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


BOOK  I. 

THE   OLD  MONARCHY. 

Manetho,  according  to  the  Armenian  version  of  Eusebius,  having 
enumerated  the  gods  of  Egypt,  beginning  with  Vulcan  and  ending 
with  Horus1,  says,  "  these  first  exercised  power  among  the  Egyp- 
tians. 

Years. 

Next>  the  royal  authority  devolved  by  conti-  1  (  which  are  lunar, 

nued  succession  to  Bytit,  in  the  space  of      j  (  of  30  days  each. 

After  the  gods  heroes  reigned  1,255 

Then  other  kings  1,817 

Then  30  other  kings  of  Memphis  1,790 

Then  10  other  kings  of  This   350 

Then  followed  a  dominion  of  manes  and  heroes  5,813 

"The  sum  amounts  to  11,000  years  (11,025),  which,  however, 
are  lunar,  of  a  month  each." 

Without  attempting  any  other  explanation  of  tnese  successions 
and  numbers  than  what  has  been  already  given2,  we  pass  to  the 

First  Dynasty. 

"  After  the  manes  and  demigods,  the  first  kingdom  is  reckoned 
to  have  consisted  of  eight  kings,  of  whom  the  first — 

1  VoL  i.  p.  300.  .  s  Vol.  ii.  p.  76,  80. 


04 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Years. 

1.  Menes  the  Thinite,  reigned1  62 

He  died,  torn  to  pieces  by  a  hippopotamus. 

2.  Athothis,  his  son,  reigned  57 

He  built  the  palace  at  Memphis.    He  was  a  physician,  and 
anatomical  books  of  his  are  in  circulation. 

3.  Kexkenes,  his  son,  reigned  31 

4.  Ouexephes,  his  son,  reigned  23 

Under  him  a  great  famine  prevailed  in  Egypt.    He  erected 
the  pyramids  near  Cochome. 

5.  Usafhaidos  (Usaphais),  his  son  20 

6.  Miebidos  (Niebaes),  his  son  26 

7.  Semempses,  his  son  18 

Under  him  a  great  pestilence  prevailed  in  Egypt. 

8.  Biexxeches,  his  son  26" 

In  all    .    .    .    .  263 


The  summation  of  Africanus  makes  the  total  253 ;  that  of  Euse- 
bius  252  in  Syncellus,  and  the  same  in  the  Armenian,  notwith- 
standing the  shortening  of  the  reign  of  Menes.  These  discrepan- 
cies will  not  be  noticed  in  future,  unless  for  some  special  reason. 

The  word  Dynasty,  which  does  not  occur  in  the  older  writers  on 
Egyptian  history,  appears  to  be  used  by  Manetho  nearly  in  the 
same  sense  as  when  we  speak  of  the  Carlovingian  or  the  Capetian 
dynasty,  as  an  hereditary  succession  of  sovereigns.  On  the  failure 
of  the  line,  election  was  resorted  to  in  Egypt.  All  the  kings  of  the 
first  dynasty  succeeded  from  father  to  son  ;  afterwards  the  mention 
of  their  relation  to  each  other  is  omitted,  but  the  descent  appears 
to  have  been  in  the  same  line  till  the  dynasty  was  changed. 

That  Menes  of  This  was  the  first  mortal  king  of  Egypt,  is  one 
of  the  very  few  points  in  which  all  the  authorities — Herodotus, 
Eratosthenes,  Diodorus,  Manetho — agree.  This,  or  Thinis,  was  a 
town  in  Upper  Egypt,  giving  its  name  to  the  nome  in  which 

1  Eusebius  in  the  Armenian  makes  his  reign  30  years. 


THE   FIRST  DYNASTY. 


95 


A bydos  stood,  and  not  far  from  that  ancient  and  celebrated  seat  of 
the  Osirian  worship1.  We  know  little  more  of  This,  but  Abydos 
was  next  to  Thebes  in  importance  among  the  cities  of  Upper  Egypt. 
The  agreement  of  the  historians  ends  here ;  for  while  Menes  is  to 
Herodotus  the  founder  of  Memphis  as  well  as  of  the  monarchy, 
Diodorus  attributes  to  another  monarch,  living  many  centuries 
later,  the  foundation  of  Memphis2  and  the  performance  of  the  great 
works  which  were  necessary  to  restrain  the  Nile,  and  obtain  an  area 
for  the  site  of  the  capital.  Since  their  accounts  so  entirely  differ, 
and  we  have  no  decisive  reason  for  preferring  one  to  the  other,  we 
may  doubt  if  either  of  them  rests  on  properly  historical  authority. 
According  to  Herodotus  a  reign  of  the  gods,  according  to  Diodorus 
of  gods  and  heroes ;  according  to  Manetho  of  gods,  manes  and  heroes, 
preceded  the  reign  of  Menes.  This  is  in  fact  to  confess  that  nothing 
historical  could  be  related  of  preceding  times.  It  is  indeed  common 
to  say,  that  the  reign  of  the  gods  means  a  reign  of  the  priests,  and 
that  a  period  of  sacerdotal  sway  preceded  the  monarchical,  which 
Menes  established.  It  is  not  in  itself  improbable  ;  but  had  it  been 
known  as  an  historical  fact  to  the  ancients,  it  would  have  been 
handed  down  to  us  as  such,  not  concealed  in  this  mode  of  expression8. 
Besides,  if  the  reign  of  the  gods  means  a  reign  of  the  priests,  what  is 
the  historical  equivalent  of  the  reigns  of  the  manes  and  the  heroes  ? 

The  entire  uncertainty  of  all  that  precedes  Menes  may  even 
throw  doubt  on  his  own  historical  reality  ;  for  we  do  not  com- 

1  Ptol.  Geogr.  B.  iv.  c.  5.  Steph.  Byz.  de  Urb.  s.  voc.    Str.ibo,  p.  813. 

2  He  says  (1,  51)  that  Memphis  was  so  called  from  the  daughter  of  the 
king  who  founded  it.  The  river  Nile,  assuming  the  form  of  a  bull,  fell  in 
love  with  her,  and  her  son,  ^Egyptus,  was  a  king  remarkable  for  benevo- 
lence, justice,  and  worth,  from  whom  the  whole  country  took  its  name. 
There  seems  here  some  allusion  to  the  worship  of  Apis. 

■  "On  eroit  que  ces  demidieux  etaient  des  grands  pretres,  qui  r£gnaient 
au  nom  des  dieux,  dontils  mettaient  les  images  ou  les  momies  sur  le  tr6ne." 
(Lesueur,  Chronologie  des  Hois  d'Egypte,  p.  309.) 


06 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


monly  find  the  darkness  of  a  mythic  period  succeeded  at  once  by 
light  and  certainty.  The  real  founders  of  great  cities  in  ancient 
times  being  generally  unknown,  it  was  common  to  suppose  one, 
bearing  the  same  name  as  the  city  itself;  and  as  Menfis1  (Coptic, 
Menbe)  appears  to  have  been  the  orthography  of  the  capital  of 
Lower  Egypt,  Menes  was  assumed  as  the  founder.  His  name, 
written  Mena,  is  found  in  a  solemn  procession,  in  which  the  images 
of  the  predecessors  of  Rameses  the  Great  are  exhibited2,  on  the 
walls  of  the  Rameseion  at  Thebes,  and  therefere,  if  fictitious,  it  is 
of  very  ancient  date.  The  monument,  however,  belongs  to  the 
18th  dynasty,  so  that  many  hundred  years  must  have  intervened 
between  the  origin  of  the  monarchy  and  the  date  of  the  inscrip- 
tion. The  same  combination  of  characters  occurs  also  in  the 
hieratic  manuscript  of  Turin,  and  is  thought  with  probability  to 
have  stood  at  the  commencement  of  the  list  of  kings,  which  that 
papyrus  contains.  This  evidence  also  refers  to  the  reign  of  Rameses 
the  Great3,  and  therefore  establishes  the  fact  of  a  belief  that  Menes 
had  been  the  founder  of  the  monarchy — a  predecessor  not  only  of 
Memphite  but  Theban  kings4. 

Menes  has  been  considered  as  identical  with  Mizraim,  who  is 
mentioned  (Gen.  x.  13)  as  the  father  of  several  African  nations. 

1  Tochon  d'Annesy,  Medailles  des  Nomes.  Eratosthenes  interprets  the 
name  Menes  Atovios.  Jablonsky,  in  De  Vignoles'  Chronology,  conjectures 
Aiwffof,  which  Bunsen  adopts,  and  refers  to  the  root  men,  perpetuus. 
(Egypten,  B.  2,  p.  45,  Germ.  See  also  his  Coptic  Vocabulary,  1,  p.  573.) 
Memphis  is  denoted  by  hieroglyphics  which  read  Mennofre,  "  abode  of  good  " 
(Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  2*78),  or  good  abode,  Sppov  dyaQ&v.  (Plut.  Is.  p 
359.) 

2  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egyptc,  p.  270. 

3  Trans,  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Lit.  2nd  series,  1,  206. 

4  It  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  the  name  of  Mnevis,  the  bull  of  Heliopolia, 
consecrated  to  the  Sun  and  Osiris,  is  written  hieroglyphically  Mena  (Lepsius, 
Einleitung,  1,  261),  and  that  Diodorus  calls  Mneves  (1,  94)  the  first  legis- 
lator of  Egypt.    Pliny  (36,  8,  Sillig)  speaks  of  a  palace  of  Mnevis. 


THE   FIRST  DYNASTY. 


97 


The  name  Mestraia  is  hence  given  by  the  author  of  the  Laterculus 
to  Egypt.  The  Old  Chronicle  speaks  of  three  races  as  inhabit- 
ing Egypt  successively,  the  Auritae,  the  Mestraei,  and  the  Egyptians. 
The  Auritae  derive  their  name  from  Aeria,  the  Greek  epithet  for 
Egypt,  signifying  dark1 ;  and  neither  name  has  any  historical 
authority.  The  termination  of  Mizraim,  which  is  plural,  or  as 
commonly  pointed  dual,  is  sufficient  to  show  that  no  real  person 
was  intended5,  and  that  Mizraim  stands  in  the  genealo^rv  only  as 
representative  of  the  nation,  and  as  indicative  of  the  relation  in 
which  the  people  of  Semitic  language  considered  the  Egyptians 
to  stand,  towards  the  common  ancestor  of  the  postdiluvian  nations. 
Mizraim  therefore  has  an  ethnological,  not  an  historical  signifi- 
cance, denoting  the  origin  of  a  people,  not  a  monarchy.  The 
name  itself  is  unknown  to  the  Egyptians  ;  they  called  their  land 
Cham  or  Chemi3,  an  appellation  which  was  also  known  to  the 
Semitic  nations,  since  Mizraim  is  described  as  the  son  of  Cham 
(Gen.  x.  6).  To  endeavor  to  combine  in  one  historical  statement 
conceptions  originating  in  different  countries  and  from  unconnected 
sources,  can  lead  to  no  satisfactory  result.  The  name  of  Mizraim, 
however,  conveys  to  us  important  information,  since  in  its  dual  form 
it  recognizes  a  double  character  in  the  Egyptian  people.  This 
cannot  have  consisted  in  their  living  on  both  sides  of  the  Nile  ; 
for  that  circumstance  has  never  constituted  a  division  in  population, 
language,  manners,  government  or  religion.  Egypt  is  the  country 
which  the  Xile  overflows  ;  Egyptians  are  the  people,  who,  whether 
on  the  eastern  or  western  bank,  below  Elephantine,  drink  of  its 
waters*.  But  the  distinction  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  exists  in 
geological  structure,  in  language,  in  religion,  and  in  historical  tradi- 
tion ;  and  to  this  the  dual  form  of  Mizraim  evidently  alludes,  prov- 

'  Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod  1,  280. 

a  Misraitn  non  est  nomen  hominis  ;  id  non  patitur  forma  dualis.  (Boeh. 
Geogr.  Sacra,  lib.  4,  c.  24.) 

8  Plut  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  364  C.  4  Her.  2,  18     Vol.  i.  p.  4. 

VOL.  II.  5 


98 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


ing  its  origin  in  times  when  the  whole  valley  from  Syene  down- 
wards was  peopled.  The  name  exists  also  in  a  singular  form, 
Metzur\  and  from  its  derivation  appears  to  allude  to  the  narrow 
and  compressed  shape  of  the  greater  part  of  the  country,  for 
which  reason  Egypt  is  called  by  the  prophet  Isaiah  (xviii.  2),  "  a 
nation  spread  out  in  length2." 

The  great  works  attributed  to  Menes,  as  the  founder  of  Memphis, 
are  fully  described  by  Herodotus3 ;  they  were  necessary  prelimi- 
naries to  the  establishment  of  a  capital  city  in  that  place.  To 
build  a  temple  and  unite  the  people  in  the  worship  of  a  tutelary 
god  was  as  essential  to  their  coalescence  in  a  community,  as  in  the 
middle  ages  the  erection  of  a  church.  Memphis  is  sometimes 
designated4  as  Ptah-ei,  "  the  abode  of  Ptah."  The  circumstances 
added  by  Diodorus  betray  a  later  origin.  Thus  he  says  that  the 
Egyptians  originally  lived  on  herbs,  then  on  fish,  afterwards  on  the 
flesh  of  cattle,  and  that  Isis,  or  one  of  their  ancient  kings  called 
Menas,  taught  them  the  use  of  the  lotus  and  grain6.  This  is  not 
in  harmony  with  another  account  in  the  same  author,  that  Menas 
taught  the  Egyptians  to  worship  the  gods  and  perform  sacrifices  ; 
and  that  he  also  introduced  the  use  of  tables  and  couches  and 
carpets,  and  the  whole  apparatus  of  civilized  luxury.  Tnephactus, 
the  father  of  Bocchoris  the  Wise,  making  an  expedition  into 
Arabia,  was  compelled  to  live  one  day  on  the  simple  fare  of  the  com- 
mon people,  and  enjoyed  his  meal  so  much,  that  he  denounced  a 
curse  on  the  king  who  had  first  introduced  luxury ;  and  caused  it 
*o  be  inscribed,  in  sacred  characters,  in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  at 

"  It  appears  to  have  been  an  archaism  of  poetry,  2  Kings,  xix.  24,  where 
.  -  •*  rivers  of  besieged  places  "  we  should  read  "  rivers  of  Egypt."  (Is. 
Xix.  6;  Mich.  vii.  12,  where  a  similar  correction  should  be  made.) 

'  TMfa  ""Q-  Comp.  Boch.  Geogr.  Sacra,  u.  s.  Strabo  (17,  p.  789) 
compares  it  to  a  long  sash  or  girdle. 

»  2,  99.    See  Vol  L  p.  95. 

4  Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  3,  278.  •  Diod.  1,  45. 


THE  FIRST  DYNASTY. 


99 


Thebes.  This,  adds  the  historian,  is  the  principal  reason  why  the 
glory  and  honor  of  Menas  have  not  remained  to  succeeding  times. 
In  this  account  a  double  purpose  is  evident,  to  point  a  satire  against 
luxury,  and  to  explain  the  obscurity  in  which  the  history  of  Menas 
was  involved.  The  founder  of  Memphis  was  certainly  not  the 
person  who  introduced  religion  among  the  Egyptians,  or  taught 
them  the  use  of  grain  ;  but  popular  tradition,  or  historical  hypo- 
thesis in  every  country,  is  prone  to  assume  that  the  commencement 
of  its  separate  history  is  also  the  commencement  of  civilization, 
and  to  disregard  the  law  of  development,  by  attributing  the 
changes  of  centuries  to  the  life  of  one  man1. 

Eusebius  adds  to  the  information  of  Africanus,  that  Menes  led 
an  army  beyond  the  territories  of  Egypt,  and  acquired  renown. 
It  does  not  appear  from  what  source  he  derived  his  authority, 
whether  from  Manetho  or  not.  Under  the  first  sovereign  of  the 
third  dynasty  it  is  said  that  the  Libyans  revolted.  These  were 
probably  the  border  tribes  on  the  east  of  the  Canopic  branch  of 
the  Nile.  They  bore  impatiently  their  incorporation  with  Egypt, 
whose  manners  and  religion  were  different  from  their  own2.  We 
may  suppose  that  their  original  conquest  and  annexation  was  the 
work  of  Menes.  In  later  times  the  Libyans  seem  to  have  assimilated 
themselves  to  the  Egyptians.  The  Oracle  of  Amun  was  estab- 
lished in  the  Great  Oasis,  and  animal  worship  prevailed  among  the 
Libyans'.  The  Lehabim,  who  are  said  to  owe  their  origin  to 
Mizraim  (Gen.  x.  13),  are  supposed  to  be  the  Libyans4,  but  this 
mode  of  expression  does  not  always  indicate  an  historical  descent. 

On  the  whole,  Menes  seems  to  fill  nearly  the  same  place  in  regard 
to  Egyptian  history  as  Romulus  to  the  Roman.  The  monarchy 
of  Egypt,  like  that  of  Rome,  must  have  had  a  founder ;  whethei 

1  Of  the  song  of  Maneros,  said  to  be  the  son  of  the  first  king  of  Egypt^ 
see  vol.  i  p.  201. 

3  Her.  2,  18.  ■  Strabo,  16,  p.  760. 

4  Michaelis,  Spie.  Geogr.  1,  262. 


100 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


in  either  case  bearing  a  name  analogous  to  that  of  the  capital  of 
the  kingdom  is  doubtful.  As  Romulus  was  represented  by  later 
historical  hypothesis  to  have  established  the  principal  civil  institu- 
tions and  religious  rites  of  the  Romans1,  as  if  he  and  his  people 
had  sprung  out  of  the  earth,  instead  of  being  a  colony  from  the 
civilized  Latins,  so  Menes  was  said  to  have  taught  religion  to  the 
Egyptians,  and  introduced  the  use  of  grain  and  even  luxury  among 
them,  though  he  came  from  This,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  worship 
of  Osiris,  and  began  his  reign  over  united  Egypt  by  works  which 
certainly  do  not  indicate  the  infancy  of  art.  Romulus  vanished  by 
a  supernatural  death,  and  was  suspected  to  have  been  taken  off 
by  a  hostile  political  faction.  Menes  was  said  to  have  been  torn 
to  pieces  by  a  hippopotamus2,  the  emblem  of  crime  in  the  Egyp- 
tian mythology.  Such  disappearances  may  generally  be  taken  as  an 
indication  that  fiction  has  been  at  work,  and  when  they  occur  at 
the  very  point  where  the  confines  of  history  and  mythology  meet, 
throw  a  shade  of  doubt  over  the  personality  of  their  subject3. 

The  establishment  of  the  capital  of  Egypt  at  Memphis  was  the 
first  step  towards  the  nation's  assuming  a  place  in  history.  Insu- 
lated in  the  Thebaid,  it  might  have  continued  for  ages  without 
any  reciprocal  action  between  it  and  the  other  great  nations  of  the 
world,  without  knowledge  of  the  sea  which  lay  beyond  the 
marshes  in  which  the  Nile  appeared  to  be  swallowed  up, — without 

1  Dion.  Halic.  Ant.  Rom.  2,  7-29. 

3  Phot.  Bibl.  Cod.  CCxlii.  p.  1047.  '0|jV7ro7rdra/iOf  kv  rots  Upoy'XvfiKOis  ypanfia- 
aiv  aSiKtav  6ri>ot.  It  was  consecrated  to  Typhon  (Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  371  C.) 
and  denoted  the  Western  horizon,  as  the  abode  of  Darkness.  Euseb.  Praeb. 
Evang.  3,  12. 

3  This,  however,  affords  no  ground  for  an  identification  of  Menes  with 
the  Menu  of  the  Indians  and  the  Mannus  of  the  Germans,  as  if  he  were 
only  another  name  for  the  human  race.  See  Buttmann's  Mythologus,  2, 
239.  Menes  is  not  the  first  man,  but  only  the  first  mortal  king.  Menu 
and  Mannus  denote  simply  a  human  being,  but  Menes  has  no  such  sense  in 
Egyptian. 


THE  FIRST  DYNASTY. 


101 


means  of  contact  with  the  civilization  which  was  advancing  from 
Mesopotamia  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  In  this  sense 
its  history  may  be  said  to  begin  with  Menes,  although  a  long 
period  must  have  preceded  his  reign,  in  which  the  people  was 
acquiring  the  capacity  of  a  natioual  existence,  and  receiving  the 
impress  of  a  national  character. 

Menes  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Athothis.  A  name  which  has 
been  read  Athoth  appears  among  the  fragments  of  the  Canon  of 
Turin,  but  the  correctness  of  the  reading  is  doubtful1.  Of  him  we 
are  told,  that  he  built  the  palace  at  Memphis  ;  that  he  was  a  phy- 
sician, and  that  books  of  anatomy  written  by  him  were  still  extant, 
whether  in  the  time  of  Manetho  or  Africanus  is  doubtful1.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  in  connexion  with  the  fame  of  this  early  sove- 
reign as  a  physician  and  anatomist,  that  not  only  was  Egypt  the 
most  celebrated  country  in  the  world  for  drugs  and  physicians2, 
but  that  Memphis  was  the  seat  of  the  worship  of  ^Esculapius,  and 
therefore  it  may  be  presumed  remarkable  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
art  of  Medicine3.  Books  on  the  various  branches  of  the  me  lical 
art  formed  part  of  the  sacerdotal  library  of  the  Egyptians4,  all  of 
which  was  attributed  to  Hermes  or  Thoth  ;  and  it  has  been 
conjectured  that  the  name  Athoth  hides  that  of  the  god,  from  its 
signifying  "  that  belongs  to  Thoth5."    We  seem  therefore  hardly 

1  Trans,  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Literature,  2nd  series,  1,  206.  Lesueur,  Chrono- 
logie,  pi.  xii.  xiii.  The  letter  A  is  wanting,  but  it  is  often  prefixed  euphoni- 
cally  in  Coptic,  as  in  Greek. 

9  Horn.  Od.  6\  228.    Jerem.  xlvi  11.    Herod.  2,  84.    See  voL  i.  p.  291. 

s  Amm.  Marcell.  22,  14.  Memphim  urbem  frequentem,  praesentiaque 
numinis  Jisculapii  claram.  The  Mohammedans  consider  the  subject  of  the 
hieroglyphical  inscriptions  to  be  the  charms  and  wonders  of  phvsie  (Vyse, 
2,  319). 

4  See  vol.  i.  p.  291. 

6  Translated  bv  Eratosthenes  'Eppoyfiw.  "The  Christian  Fathers  often 
cite  a  Hermetic  book,  in  which  the  second  Thoth  instructs  a  scholar  who  is 
sometimes  called  Tat,  sometimes  JSsculapius.    See  Cyrill.  ady.  Jul  p.  83. 


102 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


yet  to  have  quitted  the  domain  of  mythology.  A  great  deal  of 
supposititious  literature  owed  its  origin  to  Egypt,  and  that  a  divine 
and  royal  name  should  have  been  given  to  a  work  of  the  Ptolemaic 
or  Roman  times  would  be  much  less  wonderful  than  that  a  book 
should  have  been  preserved  through  so  many  centuries. 

From  the  time  of  Athothis,  who  built  a  palace  at  Memphis,  we 
may  consider  it  as  the  capital  of  the  Old  Monarchy.  The  occa- 
sional residence  of  the  sovereign  may  still  have  been  in  the  cities 
whence  the  several  dynasties  took  their  name,  but  the  hills  near 
Memphis  appear  to  have  been  their  burial-place.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded, according  to  Eratosthenes,  by  another  Athothis,  according 
to  Manetho  by  Kenkenes,  and  here  the  accordance  between  the 
two  lists  ceases.  The  reign  of  Kenkenes  was  marked  by  no  events ; 
in  that  of  his  son  and  successor,  Uenephes,  a  great  famine  prevailed 
in  Egypt.  Its  entire  dependence  on  the  rise  of  the  Nile  makes 
famine,  when  it  occurs,  more  dreadful  than  in  countries  which  have 
a  greater  variety  of  surface,  and  derive  their  moisture  from  rain 
and  small  streams.  Egypt  has  indeed  a  remedy  against  famine,  in 
the  exuberance  of  her  harvests  in  fruitful  years,  and  the  power  of 
storing  up  the  grain  and  pulse  which  are  her  chief  productions,  to 
supply  future  deficiencies.  Yet  we  see,  from  the  history  of  Joseph, 
that  this  policy  had  not  been  adopted  before  his  time  by  the  Egyp- 
tian monarchs.  Uenephes  is  also  said  to  have  built  the  pyramids 
at  Cochome.  This  mode  of  interment  appears  in  Egypt  not  only 
to  have  been  exclusively  royal,  but  exclusively  Memphite,  pyramids 
being  scarcely  found  in  Upper  Egypt1,  and  the  great  functionaries 
who  lie  buried  around  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh  being  all  deposited 
in  excavations.    A  regal  residence  required  a  regal  cemetery,  but 

Augustin.  de  Civ.  Dei,  viii.  23.    Chron.  Pasch.  65,  68.    This  Tat  is  placed 
by  Manetho  "  (rather  the  author  of  the  spurious  Sothis)  "  among  those  gods 
to  whom  the  sacred  literature  was  attributed.    He  is  probably  the  second 
Egyptian  king  Athothis."    (Movers,  die  Phonizier,  1,  527.) 
1  Vol.  i.  p.  124. 


THE  FIRST  DYNASTY. 


103 


the  pyramids  were  probably  only  of  brick  or  rough  stones ;  for  the 
art  of  building  with  hewn  stone  was  not  introduced  till  the  reign 
of  Tosorthrus  of  the  third  dynasty.  The  site  of  Cochome  is 
unknown.  As  all  the  known  burial-places  of  the  Memphite  kings, 
however,  were  in  the  Libyan  hills,  on  the  western  side  of  the  Nile, 
it  is  here  that  we  should  look  for  the  pyramids  of  Uenephes.  His 
monuments  have  yielded  to  the  power  of  Time,  which  has  been 
unable  to  make  any  impression  on  the  works  of  Cheops,  Chephres, 
and  Mycerinus ;  or  they  may  have  been  among  those  numerous 
ruined  and  nameless  pyramids,  whose  existence  the  Prussian  expe- 
dition has  ascertained.  It  is  probable  that  the  method  of  embalm- 
ment was  already  practised ;  Kos  is  the  word  used  in  the  Coptic 
version  of  Gen.  1.  2,  for  the  embalmment  of  Jacob ;  it  is  found  in 
several  names  of  places1,  and  seems  to  have  entered  into  the  com- 
position of  KorJiome.  Indeed  the  Armenian  Eusebius  reads  "  the 
town  (xwfjt.7))  of  Cho2."  Athothis  is  said  to  have  been  a  physician 
and  anatomist.  Embalmment  in  early  times  was  a  branch  of  the 
medical  art;  anatomy  also  does  not  seem  in  Egypt  to  have  pro- 
ceeded beyond  such  a  knowledge  of  the  internal  structure  as  the 
evisceration  which  accompanied  embalmment  would  furnish.  The 
bodies  of  the  predecessors  of  Uenephes  having  been  preserved  by 
this  art  would  be  naturaily  transferred  to  these  receptacles ;  for  he 
is  said  to  have  raised  not  one,  but  several  pyramids.  In  the  reign 
of  Semempses  it  is  recorded  that  Egypt  was  afflicted  with  a  pesti- 
lence ;  and  Eusebius  adds  that  many  prodigies  accompanied  it ; 
agreeably  to  the  experience  of  all  ages,  that  events  unnoticed  at 
other  times  are  understood  as  significant  when  the  public  mind  is 
rendered  superstitious  by  alarm  and  suffering3. 

1  Champollion,  L'Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  1,  220. 
a  See  Bunsen,  Urk.  p.  9. 

5  Tacit.  Hist  4*  26.  Quod  in  pace  fors  seu  natura  tunc  fatum  et  ira  dei 
voeabatur. 


104 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Second  Dynasty.    Nine  Thinite  kings. 

Years. 


1.  Boethos  (Bochus,  Euseb.)  reigned  38 

In  his  reign  a  great  opening  of  the  ground  took  place,  and 
many  persons  perished  at  Bubastos. 

2.  Kaiechos  (CHOos,Euseb.)  reigned  39 

In  his  reign  the  bulls  Apis  at  Memphis  and  Mnevis  at  Heli- 
opolis,  and  the  Mendesian  goat,  were  established  by  law 
as  gods. 

3.  Binotiiris  (Biopiiis,  Euseb.)  47 

In  whose  reign  it  was  decided  that  women  should  have  the 
prerogative  of  royalty. 

4.  Tlas  17 

5.  Setuenes    41 

o.  ch aires  17 

7.  Xepiiercheres  25 

In  whose  reign  the  Nile  is  fabled  to  have  flowed  eleven  days, 
mixed  with  honey. 

8.  Sesochris  48 

Who  was  five  cubits  three  palms  in  height. 

9.  Chxxeres  30 


In  all    ...    .  302 

This  dynasty,  like  the  first,  is  called  of  Thinite  kings,  although 
Memphis  had  become  the  capital.  It  is  not  said  whose  son  the 
founder  of  the  second  dynasty  was ;  probably  he  was  descended 
from  a  collateral  branch.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  though  called 
Thinite,  they  were  supposed  to  be  kings  of  all  Egypt :  otherwise  it 
would  have  been  absurd  to  have  dated  events,  changes  of  religion 
and  political  institutions  by  their  reigns1. 

The  mention  of  the  city  of  Bubastos  or  Bubastis,  which  is  situ- 
ated in  the  Delta,  on  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile,  below  Heli- 

1  Lepsius,  however,  (Einleitung,  1,  p.  489)  considers  this  dynasty  con- 
temporaneous with  the  first. 


THE  SECOND  DYNASTY. 


105 


opolis1,  as  having  in  these  early  times  a  large  population,  shows 
that  when  the  priests  told  Herodotus2  that  in  the  days  of  Menes 
all  Egypt,  except  the  Theban  nome,  was  a  marsh,  and  that  below 
the  Lake  of  Mceris  nothing  had  yet  appeared  above  water,  they 
spoke  entirely  without  historical  authority.  They  saw,  what  Hero- 
dotus says  was  evident  to  one  who  only  used  his  own  eyesight,  and 
had  not  been  previously  informed  of  it,  that  the  Delta  was 
"  acquired  land,  and  the  gift  of  the  Nile3."  But  being  ignorant  of 
the  rate  at  which  such  phenomena  proceed,  and  conceiving  the  com- 
mencement of  their  own  special  history  to  be  the  commencement 
of  everything,  they  made  the  formation  of  the  Delta,  and  the  whole 
country  below  the  Theban  nome,  the  work  of  thousands  of  years, 
to  have  begun  with  Menes.  With  the  same  ignorance  of  the  rate 
of  progression,  they  represented  to  Herodotus  that  there  had  been 
a  rise  of  level  in  the  soil  of  Egypt  below  Memphis  equal  to  eight 
cubits  in  900  years4.  The  time  of  the  changes  by  which  the  Delta 
was  elevated  and  laid  dry  stretches  far  beyond  history,  and  Menes 
did  not  found  his  capital  that  he  might  reign  over  a  marsh. 

Such  an  event  as  the  sudden  opening  of  a  chasm  in  the  ground, 
and  the  consequent  destruction  of  a  great  multitude  of  people,  would 
be  regarded  as  a  prodigy,  and  therefore  be  preserved  in  the  Egyp- 
tian annals,  scanty  as  they  are.  Egypt  is  not  very  subject  to  earth- 
quakes, and  the- chasm  is  more  probably  to  be  attributed  to  the 
undermining  of  a  part  of  the  city  by  the  Nile,  on  the  bank  of 
which  it  stood.  A  similar  chasm  in  the  Forum  at  Rome  filled  the 
minds  of  the  people  with  superstitious  terror,  and  it  was  believed 
that  nothing  less  than  the  self-devotion  of  Curtius  could  have 
averted  the  omen  and  closed  the  abyss5.  Though  the  story  of  the 
expiation  may  be  false,  the  terror  was  real. 

The  reign  of  Kaiechos  is  distinguished  by  the  establishment  of 
the  worship  of  Apis  at  Memphis,  Mnevis  at  Heliopolis,  and  the 

1  See  vol.  i.  p.  46.  2  Her.  2,  4.  8  Her.  2,  4,  5. 

4  Her.  2,  13.  6  Li  v.  7,  6.    Plin.  15,  20. 


106 


HISTORY  OF  EGYP.T. 


Mendesian  goat  at  the  town  of  that  name.  We  have  here  a  more 
decisive  evidence  that  Lower  Egypt,  in  the  early  times  of  the  Old 
Monarchy,  was  in  a  state  not  materially  different  from  that  in  which 
it  was  known  to  the  Jews  and  the  Greeks.  Mendes  stood  not  far 
from  the  sea1;  the  Delta  therefore,  even  to  its  extremity,  must 
have  been  already  firm  and  dry.  It  is  not  the  introduction  of  ani- 
mal worship  among  the  Egyptians,  as  sometimes  supposed,  that  is 
here  recorded  ;  that  lies  far  beyond  the  commencement  of  history ; 
but  specially  the  establishment  of  the  worship  of  the  bull  and  the 
goat  in  the  three  cities  mentioned.  Lower  Egypt  was  the  principal 
seat  of  this  superstition.  Among  other  things  attributed  toMenes, 
he  was  said  to  have  introduced  the  worship  of  the  bull2.  Basis, 
the  sacred  bull  of  Hermonthis  in  the  Thebaid,  is  never  mentioned 
by  the  older  writers,  and  appears  to  have  been  an  object  of  merely 
local  reverence,  while  Apis  was  passionate!)  worshipped  by  the 
whole  nation*.  Every  nome  had  its  own  animal  type  of  divinity, 
and  abstained  from  using  its  flesh  for  food ;  but  we  read  of  no  such 
extravagant  and  superstitious  homage  being  paid  to  the  ram  at 
Thebes  as  to  the  bull  at  Memphis.  Next  to  the  bull  Apis,  the  cat 
seems  to  have  been  the  animal  most  Buperstitiously  worshipped  by 
the  Egyptians,  and  the  chief  temple  of  the  goddess  Pasht,  to  whom 
it  was  consecrated,  was  at  Bubastosin  the  Delta. 

A  shield  has  been  found  by  Lepsius  in  a  tomb  near  the  pyra- 
mids of  Gizeh  containing  the  name  Ke-ke-ou,  which,  there  can  be 
little  doubt,  answers  to  the  Kaiechos  of  Manetho's  list3.  Sethenes, 
Chaires  and  Nephercheres'  have  also  been  identified  with  some 
probability4.  The  establishment  of  the  prerogative  of  royalty  on 
behalf  of  women  in  the  reign  of  Binothris,  is  not  connected  with 
the  mention  of  any  female  succession  or  claim.  History  knows 
only  of  one  queen,  Nitocris,  and  she  is  not  said  to  have  succeeded 
to  the  throne  by  a  law  of  the  kingdom,  but  to  have  been  chosen 
1  Strabo,  17,  p.  802.  a  ^Elian,  Hist.  Anim.  11,  10 

*  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  106,  Germ.  4  Lesueur,  p.  270,  310. 


THE  SECOND  DYNASTY. 


107 


by  a  special  act  of  the  people,  who  had  put  her  brother  to  death1. 
In  the  monuments  only  one  female  appears  with  the  attributes  of 
royalty,  Set  Amen,  Amense  or  Amesses  of  the  18th  dynasty,  who 
probably  reigned  as  guardian  of  her  son  or  younger  brother.  In 
the  lists  besides  Nitocris,  Scemiophris  appears  at  the  end  of  the  12  th 
dynasty,  the  sister  of  Ammenemes  ;  and  Acencheres  of  the  18th  is 
called  by  Joseph  us  daughter  of  Horus,  neither  of  which  is  confirmed 
by  the  monuments.  The  specialty  of  these  cases  makes  us  doubt 
whether  the  words2  imply  female  inheritance,  since  in  such  frequent 
change  of  dynasty,  had  there  been  no  Salic  law,  it  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible that  we  should  not  have  found  daughters  succeeding  to  the 
throne.  The  words  "  royal  prerogatives  "  do  not  necessarily  imply 
more  than  the  monuments  exhibit — their  exercising  regal  functions, 
without  being  included  in  the  list  of  sovereigns.  Diodorus  indeed 
says,  that  the  queen  of  Egypt  enjoyed  greater  honors  than  the 
king,  attributing  the  distinction  to  the  merits  of  Isis3 ;  in  accord- 
ance with  the  practice  of  a  country  which  allotted  greater  respect 
to  the  female  than  the  male.  This  appears,  however,  if  the  fact 
be  correctly  stated,  to  have  been  matter  of  courtesy  and  sentiment 
rather  than  of  legal  right4. 

In  the  reign  of  Nephercheres  the  Nile  was  fabled  to  have  flowed 
eleven  days,  mixed  with  honey.  As  rivers  were  esteemed  divine 
by  the  ancients6,  their  changes  were  noted  with  superstitious  appre- 
hension. Whatever  affected  the  Nile,  which  physically  as  well  as 
religiously  was  of  vast  importance  to  the  Egyptians,  would  be  very 
likely  to  be  recorded.    To  have  their  sacred  river  changed  into 

1  Her.  %  100.     Tov  dS&Qeov  diroKrt'ivavTes  »VT(d  int'ivy  drrc6o<rai'  ri)v  0ao-i\r]ti}v. 

*  'Eicpidri  ra$  yvvaiicas  (3aai\eia(  yepas  i^tiv. 

*  Diod.  1.  27.  Aia  ravras  ras  airiag  (the  merits  of  Isis)  KaraSeixdnvai  ftei^ovos 
e£ovoias  xal  Tiprjs  rvyj^aieiv  rr)v  0aai\taaav  tov  /?aci>£wf. 

4  See  what  Herodotus  says  (p.  46  of  this  vol.)  of  the  inferiority  of  women 
in  Egypt 

6  Athenag.  adv.  Gentes,  quoted  in  Voss.  de  Idol,  ii  78. 


108 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


blood  was  one  of  the  humiliations  which  preceded  their  permission 
to  the  Israelites  to  depart.  Similar  changes  in  rivers  are  among 
the  omens  which  have  been  handed  down  to  us  abundantly  in  the 
Roman  history1,  and  the  fabulousness2  of  this  account  of  the  Nile's 
flowing  mixed  with  honey  is  no  proof  against  the  historical  cha- 
racter of  the  period  and  of  the  sovereigns.  The  great  stature 
ascribed  to  Sesochris  we  shall  hereafter  see,  has  probably  been 
transferred  by  later  authors  to  Sesostris,  whom  Herodotus  and 
Eusebius  celebrate  for  his  size,  though  nothing  of  this  kind  is 
asserted  by  Manetho  of  the  Sesostris  of  his  12th  dynasty. 

Third  Dynasty.    Nine  Memphite  kings. 

Years. 


1.  ]Secherophes  (ISecherochis,  Euseb.)  reigned  28 

Under  him  the  Libyans  revolted  from  the  Egyptians,  and  the 
moon  having  increased  in  an  extraordinary  way,  were 
alarmed  and  surrendered. 

2.  Tosorthres  (Sesorthos,  Euseb.)  29 

He  was  called  iEsculapius  by  the  Egyptians,  in  reference  to 
his  medical  art;  and  he  invented  building  by  means  of 
polished  stones  (sfMrwv  XiQuiv):  he  also  cultivated  the  art  of 
writing.  [The  remaining  six  did  nothing  worthy  of  being 
recorded,  Euseb.] 

3.  Tyreis  7 

4.  Mesochris  17 

5.  Souphis  16 

6.  Tosertasis  19 

7.  Aches  42 

8.  Sephoeris  30 

9.  KtRPHERES  26 


Total    .    ...  214 

According  to  Eusebius  there  were  only  eight  kings  in  this  dynasty, 

1  See  Bryant's  observations  on  the  Plagues  of  Egypt,  p.  26. 
3  The  expression  fivd ever  ai  rdv  ISaAoi/  pcAm  KtKpa^tvov  pvrjvai  must  belong 
to  Africanus,  not  Manetho. 


THE   THIRD  DYNASTY. 


109 


and  they  reigned,  not  214,  but  197  years.  He  specifies  the  names 
only  of  Necherochis  and  Sesorthus,  for  so  he  writes  the  two  first. 
The  revolt  of  the  Libyans,  which  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Neche- 
rophis,  has  been  explained  in  speaking  of  the  conquests  of  Menes ; 
its  termination  by  the  terror  excited  through  some  unusual  appear- 
ance of  the  moon  is  quite  in  the  character  of  ancient  superstition1. 
The  reign  of  Sesorthos  or  Tosorthrus,  briefly  as  its  events  are 
summed  up,  was  evidently  one  marked  by  great  improvements  in 
Egypt ;  he  held  the  same  place  in  the  history  of  medicine  in  that 
country  as  ^Esculapius  in  Greece2 ;  and  he  introduced  the  use  of 
squared  and  polished  stones  in  architecture,  instead  of  the  rough 
surfaces  and  irregular  angles  of  their  previous  mode  of  building. 
The  improvement  or  more  extensive  practice  of  the  art  of  writing 
is  naturally  connected  with  this  change  in  building.  Writing  in 
its  earliest  stage  in  Egypt  was  hieroglyphic  engraving,  which  could 
not  be  practised  with  facility  except  on  the  surface  of  smoothed 
stones.  And  this  may  have  been  the  reason  why  both  are  attri- 
buted to  the  same  sovereign. 

There  is  no  certain  correspondence  between  the  monuments  and 
the  names  in  this  dynasty.  A  shield  which  has  been  read  Chufu 
has  been  found  in  the  grotto  of  Benihassan,  and  has  been  supposed 
to  be  the  Souphis  who  stands  fifth  in  the  list ;  it  contains,  how- 
ever, one  character  (the  arm  and  scourge)  not  commonly  found  in 
Chufu,  and  if  it  belong  at  all  to  this  dynasty  seems  rather  to  answer 
to  Sephouris,  the  eighth.  A  name  resembling  Tosorthrus  or 
Sesorthus  occurs  in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis,  and  another  which 
has  been  read  Aches3. 

1  Her.  1,  74,  of  the  eclipse  which  put  an  end  to  the  war  between  the 
Lydians  and  the  Medes. 

5  The  expression  A2y«jrrf«c$  Kara  tt>v  iarfwcriv  vtvofiiarat  must  be  that  of 
Africanus,  not  Manetho,  though  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  infor- 
mation came  from  his  annals. 

*  Lesueur,  p.  311.  Lepsius  says  (Einleitung,  1,  551)  that  only  a  few  dates 
of  months  are  known  to  him  of  this  dynasty. 


110 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Fourth  Dynasty1, 

Eight  Memphite  kings  of  another  family  (seventeen,  Euseb.) 
reigned  284  years  (448  Euseb.) 

Years. 

1.  Soris  29 

2.  Suphis  63 

He  raised  the  largest  pyramid,  which  Herodotus  says  was  built 
by  Cheops;  he  was  even  a  contemner  of  the  gods  and 
[having  repented,  Euseb.]  wrote  the  sacred  book,  "  which 
I  acquired  when  I  was  in  Egypt  as  a  very  valuable  thing," 
Africanus  ["  which  the  Egyptians  cherish  as  a  very  valua- 
ble thing,"  Eusebius,  who  adds,  "  and  of  the  rest  nothing 
worth  mention  has  been  recorded"]. 


3.  Southis   66 

4.  Mkncheres   63 

5.  Ratoises   25 

6.  Bicheris   22 

7.  Sebercheres    7 

8.  Thamphthis  ...   9 


Total    ....  284 


We  may  congratulate  ourselves  that  we  have  at  length  reached 
the  period  of  undoubted  contemporaneous  monuments  in  Egyptian 
history.  The  pyramids  and  the  sepulchres  near  them  still  remain 
to  assure  us  that  we  are  not  walking  in  a  land  of  shadows,  but 
among  a  populous  and  powerful  nation  far  advanced  in  the  arts  of 
life.    And  as  a  people  can  only  progressively  attain  to  such  a  sta- 

1  According  to  Bunsen,  after  190  years  the  kingdom  of  Menes  was  divided, 
one  branch  reigning  in  Upper,  the  other  in  Lower  Egypt,  the  Memphite 
constituting  what  he  calls  the  imperial  dynasty,  alone  recognised  in  the 
chronology  of  Eratosthenes.  Each  of  these  dynasties  came  to  an  end  at  the 
same  time,  224  years  after  their  establishment,  and  the  kingdom  was  re- 
united, 414  years  after  Menes,  under  the  fourth  dynasty.  (B.  2,  vol.  2,  p, 
65  foil.,  Germ.) 


THE   FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


Ill 


tion,  the  light  of  historical  certainty  is  reflected  back  from  this  aera 
to  the  ages  which  precede  it.  There  is,  however,  extraordinary 
variance  among  the  ancient  authorities,  nor  is  the  evidence  of  the 
monuments  altogether  free  from  difficulty. 

We  see  that  Manetho  declares  Souphis  to  have  been  the  builder  of 
the  Great  Pyramid,  taking  no  notice  of  the  building  of  the  Second ; 
and  we  shall  find  hereafter  that  he  attributes  to  Xitocris,  a  queen 
of  his  sixth  dynasty,  the  erection  of  the  third.  Eratosthenes  gives 
in  immediate  succession  Saophis,  Saophis  II.  and  Moscheres,  but 
says  nothing  of  the  building  of  the  pyramids,  as  indeed  throughout 
his  lists  he  mentions  nothing  either  of  the  works  or  the  exploits  of 
the  kings.  Herodotus  says  that  Cheops  built  the  Great  Pyramid, 
his  brother  Chephren  the  Second,  and  Mycerinus  the  Third  :  Dio- 
dorus  that  Chembes  or  Chemmis  built  the  Great  Pyramid,  Kephren 
his  brother,  or  Chabryis  his  son,  the  Second,  and  Mecherinus  or 
Mencherinus  the  Third.  Pliny,  after  quoting  the  names  of  twelve 
authors  who  had  written  on  the  pyramids,  declares  that  the  build- 
ers of  them  were  unknown.  Till  very  lately  they  seemed  to  give 
no  evidence  on  behalf  of  their  founders.  No  inscriptions  appeared 
either  within  or  without ;  it  had  grown  into  one  of  the  common- 
places of  morality,  that  the  builders  of  these  stupendous  works  had 
been  deprived  of  the  fame  which  they  coveted1.  The  Great  Pyra- 
mid had  long  been  open,  and  the  central  chamber  contained  a 
sarcophagus,  but  without  a  name ;  Belzoni  succeeded  in  opening 
the  Second,  and  found  a  sarcophagus  beneath  it ;  but  that  also 
was  without  an  inscription.  At  length  Colonel  Vyse  in  the  course 
of  his  researches  found  a  way  into  the  chambers  already  described 
over  the  king's  chamber,  and  in  two  of  them  discovered  shields  in 

1  X.  EL  36,  12  (17).  Qui  de  his  scripserunt  sunt  Herodotus,  Euhemerus, 
Duris  Saniius,  Aristagoras,  Dionysius,  Artemidorus,  Alexander  Polyhistor, 
Butorides,  Antisthenes,  Demetrius,  Demoteles,  Apion.  Inter  omnes  eos  non 
constat  a  quibus  facte  sint,  justissimo  casu  obliteratis  tant«  vanitatis 
auctoribus. 


112 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


the  common  phonetic  character1.  They  are  drawn  with  red  paint 
on  the  calcareous  blocks  which  form  the  sides,  alonp;  with  various 
other  marks,  supposed  to  be  those  of  the  quarry-men  or  masons. 
One  of  these  shields  contains  four  characters  which  it  is  agreed 
should  be  pronounced  Chnfa  or  Shu/a;  another  is  mutilated,  but 
has  evidently  ended  in  fa,  and  therefore  probably  contained  the 
same  name.  Another  chamber  contains  a  shield  with  the  same 
group2,  but  prefixed  to  it  the  jug  and  ram  which  are  found  with 
the  figures  of  the  ram-headed  god  of  Thebes,  commonly  called 
Kneph,  Neph,  Cnuphis,  Chnoum,  or  Num.  Chufu  is  without  vio- 
lence made  to  answer  to  the  Souphis  of  Manetho,  the  Saophis  of 
Eratosthenes,  and  the  Cheops  of  Herodotus3.  And  as  it  is  impro- 
bable that  the  same  king  should  be  designated  in  two  different 
ways  in  the  same  monument,  it  has  been  concluded  that  there  were 
two  of  the  name  of  Chufu,  one  being  distinguished  by  the  addi- 
tional characters  of  the  jug  and  the  ram4.  Herodotus  speaks 
indeed  only  of  one  Cheops ;  but  Eratosthenes  mentions  a  second 
Saophis,  and  Manetho  a  second  Souphis.  The  name  of  the  second 
has  been  read  Kneph-Chufu,  or  Chnoum-Chufu,  and  it  is  possible 
that  this  additional  syllable  may  have  given  rise  to  the  name 
Chembes,  which  Diodorus  attributes  to  the  builder  of  the  Great 
Pyramid. 

It  will  be  seen  by  recurring  to  the  description  of  this  struc- 
ture (vol.  i.  p.  100),  that  a  long  straight  descent  conducts  from 
the  opening  to  a  subterranean  chamber,  in  which,  however, 
no  sarcophagus  or  inscription  has  been  found.  Now  from 
the  analogy  of  all  the  other  pyramids,  we  are  led  to  conclude 

1  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  1,  2*79.  Vol.  i.  of  this  work,  p.  106. 

8  Lepsius  (Denkm.  taf.  vii.)  gives  a  drawing  of  an  alabaster  vase  with  the 
banner  of  a  king,  the  same  as  Ricci  found  at  Wadi  Magara,  connected  with 
the  name  of  Chufu.  (Rosell.  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  3.) 

3  The  final  u  is  sometimes  omitted  in  the  shield  of  this  king. 

4  See  PI.  III.  C.  3,  at  the  end  of  vol.  1. 


THE  FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


113 


that  this  was  the  place  in  which  the  interment  was  originally 
designed  to  be  made.  To  this  the  passage  from  the  opening 
leads  directly.  Why  it  was  abandoned,  and  two  chambers  con- 
structed in  the  heart  of  the  pyramid  itself,  we  are  not  informed, 
nor  can  we  form  any  probable  conjecture.  The  lower  of  these  two 
•is  traditionally  called  the  Queen's  Chamber,  but  there  is  nothing 
which  marks  it  as  destined  for  such  a  purpose ;  and  it  was  not  the 
usual  practice  of  the  Egyptians  to  inter  kings  and  queens  in  the 
same  monument.  It  should  seem  that  Herodotus  had  the  subter 
ranean  apartment  in  view,  when  he  spoke  of  a  canal  which  Cheops 
introduced  from  the  Nile,  by  which  he  insulated  his  own  grave. 
The  actual  depth  of  this  apartment  below  the  ground  in  which 
the  pyramid  stands  is  ninety  feet ;  and  though  this  is  still  con- 
siderably above  the  highest  level  of  the  Nile1,  in  the  absence  of 
accurate  measurements,  it  might  be  easily  supposed  practicable  to 
bring  in  a  canal  from  the  river ;  but  this  would  have  been  too 
obviously  absurd,  if  meant  of  the  King's  Chamber  in  the  centre 
of  the  pyramid,  138  feet  above  the  ground2.  Diodorus  also 
speaks  of  (Chembes)  Cheops  as  not  being  interred  in  his  pyramid, 
but  in  some  secret  place,  that  his  body  might  not  be  exposed  to 
the  insults  of  the  oppressed  people3.  Now  we  know  that  in  the 
time  of  Strabo,  the  Great  Pyramid  was  open4 ;  probably  therefore 
in  the  time  of  Diodorus.  But  these  authors  seem  to  have  known 
nothing  of  any  sepulchral  vault  except  the  subterranean ;  the  way 
to  that  was  open,  from  the  mouth  in  the  side  of  the  pyramid  ;  but 
all  access  to  the  Queen's  and  King's  Chambers  was  barred  by  the 
block  of  granite  which  closed  the  place  at  which  the  passage  to 
them  diverges  ;  nor  do  they  appear  ever  to  have  been  seen  till  a 
forced  passage  was  made  by  the  Caliphs5.    The  subterranean  vault 

1  "On  the  23d  of  October,  1838,  the  level  of  the  river  (it  being  High 
Kile)  was  137  feet  3  inches  below  the  base  of  the  Great  Pyramid."  (Vyse, 
2,148.)  2  Vyse,  2,  111.  8  1,  64. 

4  Lib.  1*7,  p.  808.  6  Abdollatif  in  Col.  Howard  Yyse,  2,  340. 


114 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


being  empty,  the  tradition  of  Diodorus  had  a  natural  origin.  It 
seems  then  not  improbable  that  Cheops  or  Chufu,  abandoning  his 
original  intention  to  construct  himself  a  monument  beneath  a 
pyramid,  began  the  structure  which  now  exists,  and  that  his  sarco- 
phagus was  placed  in  what  we  call  the  Queen's  Chamber.  It  cer- 
tainly contained  a  sarcophagus  when  this  part  of  the  pyramid  was 
opened  under  the  Caliphs1.  It  is  in  the  very  centre  of  the  struc- 
ture, which  may  originally  not  have  been  carried  much  higher. 
His  successor,  the  second  Chufu,  distinguished  by  the  addition  of 
the  ram  and  jug,  appears  to  have  continued  his  work  and  con- 
structed for  himself  the  King's  Chamber,  in  which  his  sarcophagus 
still  remains.  The  mixture  of  stones  containing  the  names  of  the 
two  Chufus  in  the  vacant  spaces  over  the  King's  Chamber,  may 
be  explained  by  the  supposition  that  the  second  used  some  mate- 
rials which  his  predecessor  had  prepared,  and  which  had  been 
marked  by  his  name.  It  is  not  surprising,  that  as  both  bore  the 
same  name,  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  should  have  considered  them 
as  one. 

The  Second  Pyramid  contains  no  name  in  any  part  of  it ; 
but  in  the  adjacent  tombs2  the  shield  of  a  king  whose  name 
reads  Shafre*  has  been  found,  and  the  figure  of  a  pyramid.  In 
him  we  recognize  without  difficulty  the  Chephren  of  Herodotus 
and  Diodorus,  though  there  is  no  corresponding  name  either  in 

1  Edrisi  quoted  in  Vyse,  2,  335.  "The  alley  is  ascended  until  a  door  is 
reached  near  a  block  of  stone  by  which  one  ascends  towards  another  sloping 
alley. — By  this  door  a  square  room  is  entered  with  an  empty  vessel  in  it. — 
Returning  hence  to  the  place  through  which  one  enters,  the  second  alley  is 
ascended.  Another  square  room  is  then  reached — an  empty  vessel  is  seen 
here  similar  to  the  former." 

2  The  tomb  was  that  of  his  chief  architect,  who  calls  his  master,  "  the 
great  one  of  the  Pyramid."  (See  Lepsius,  Denkmaler,  taf.  viii.  D.)  The 
pyramid  is  here  always  represented  with  a  square  base,  projecting  beyond 
the  pyramidal  part. 

3  Birch  in  Yyse,  2,  98. 


THE  FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


115 


Manetho  or  Eratosthenes.  Diodorus  mentions  a  tradition  that  he 
was  not  the  brother,  as  Herodotus  represented  him,  but  the  son  of 
Cheops,  and  that  his  name  was  not  Kephren,*but  Chabryis1.  As 
there  were  two  Chufus,  he  might  be  the  son  of  one  and  brother 
of  the  other ;  and  the  difference  between  Shafre  and  Chabryis  is 
not  so  great  as  to  decide  that  they  were  not  the  same  person. 
Herodotus  in  his  account  of  the  Second  Pyramid  says,  that  it  was 
inferior  to  the  first  in  other  respects,  and  also  in  not  containing 
any  subterranean  chambers2.  In  fact,  however,  its  only  known 
chamber  is  subterranean. 

The  Third  Pyramid  is  assigned  by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  to 
Mycerinus,  Mecherinus  or  Mencherinus3.  In  Manetho,  Mencheres 
immediately  follows  the  second  Suphis,  but  is  not  mentioned  by 
him  as  the  builder  of  the  Pyramid.  All  doubt  on  this  subject  has 
been  removed  by  the  discovery  of  the  coffin*,  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  Menkera.  Herodotus  calls  him  the  son  of  Cheops,  which 
is  not  very  probable,  if  according  to  his  statement  the  brother  of 
Cheops,  Chephren,  had  reigned  after  Cheops  fifty-six  years.  The 
accounts  of  this  king  are  very  inconsistent.  According  to  Hero- 
dotus he  was  a  mild  and  humane  monarch,  who  opened  the 
temples  which  had  been  closed  for  106  years,  and  relieved  the 
people  of  their  burdens.  And  yet  he  built  a  pyramid,  which, 
though  it  fell  short  of  both  the  others  in  dimensions,  exceeded 
them  in  costliness  of  material  and  execution5.  His  justice  was 
such  that  he  was  more  extolled  by  the  Egyptians  than  any  of  their 
kings6 ;  yet  he  was  said  to  have  indulged  an  unnatural  passion  for 
his  own  daughter,  who  died  of  grief  at  the  outrage  which  he 
offered  to  her.  He  was  remarkable  for  his  piety,  and  yet  endea- 
vored to  make  the  oracle  of  Buto  "  a  liar7."    These  things  excite 

1  1,  64.  a  Herod.  2,  127. 

•  Tivis  piv  Xtor^of  leg.  Mtv-^Epivov.  (Diod.  1,  64.  Bockh,  Manetho,  p.  597.) 
4  Vol  i.  p.  111.  6  Her.  2,  129.  6  Diod.  1,  64. 

*  BtXwv  to  pavTTjioi  iptvSoptvov  diroSt£ai.    (Herod.  2,  133.) 


116 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


a  suspicion  that  two  kings  of  the  same  name,  but  very  different 
characters,  have  been  blended  in  one  tradition1.  In  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  which  here  first  begins  to  be  legible,  we  have  in  the 
fifteenth  shield  the  evident  traces  of  the  name  of  Menkera ;  the 
fourteenth  appears  to  have  contained  the  same  name,  though  little 
of  it  i#  now  left ;  with  the  addition  of  the  hatchet,  which  signifies 
god1.  It  had  been  observed  by  Lepsius,  that  the  name  of  Menkera 
occurs  in  the  Ritual  of  the  Dead3  as  a  deceased  king,  and  that  it 
is  frequently  found  on  scarabaei  which  had  been  used  as  amulets, 
and  which  from  the  style  of  their  workmanship  must  have  been 
executed  long  after  his  death.  This  clearly  points  to  a  deifica- 
tion of  Menkera,  or  to  some  cause  for  which  his  name  was  held 
in  special  reverence.  The  same  group  of  characters  which  is 
found  on  the  mummy-case  in  the  Third  Pyramid  is  inscribed  in 
red  paint  on  a  slab  in  one  of  the  smaller  pyramids  of  Gizeh,  tradi- 
tionally supposed  to  be  the  tombs  of  queens.  The  sarcophagus 
which  it  contains  has  no  sculpture,  and  the  mummy-case  which 
it  once  contained  has  been  reduced  to  dust ;  but  from  its  small 
size  and  the  appearance  of  a  tooth  which  was  found  in  it,  it  has 
been  concluded  that  it  had  received  the  body  of  a  young  female — 
the  wife  or  daughter  of  Menkera4. 

The  106  years  occupied  by  the  reigns  of  Chufu  and  Shafre  were 
regarded, by  the  Egyptians  as  a  period  of  national  oppression  and 
suffering.  The  people  were  worn  out  by  forced  labors  in  the 
quarries  and  at  the  pyramids,  and  the  temples  were  closed,  that 
the  celebration  of  the  sacred  rites,  which  occupied  so  large  a  portion 

1  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  309,  observes  that  Psammitichus  has  the 
addition  Menkera  in  his  shield,  and  supposes  that  he  has  been  mixed  up 
with  Mencheres  the  builder  of  the  Third  Pyramid. 

2  See  Wilkinson's  copy  in  the  Hieroglyphics  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  PI.  98. 

3  It  is  written  in  the  Ritual  (Das  Todtenbuch,  col.  64),  as  on  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  with  a  single  character,  he,  for  "  offering ;"  on  the  coffin  this  cha- 
racter is  thrice  repeated,  making  the  plural  keu.  4  Yyse,  2,  48. 


THE  FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


117 


of  the,  Egyptian  year,  might  not  draw  off  the  people  from  their 
work.  So  strong  was  the  hatred  with  which  their  memory  was 
regarded,  that  the  common  Egyptian  was  unwilling  even  to  name 
them,  and  would  gladly  have  thrown  the  odium  of  their  erection 
on  a  foreign  race.  In  concluding  his  account,  Herodotus  observes, 
that  the  Egyptians  alleged  them  to  have  been  built  by  the  shep- 
herd Philition,  who  then  fed  his  flocks  in  this  district.  Nowhere 
else  is  such  a  person  mentioned,  and  it  has  been  supposed  that  in 
this  obscure  passage  we  have  an  allusion  to  the  Palestinian  Shep- 
herds1, who,  under  the  name  of  Hyksos,  appear  subsequently  in 
Egyptian  history,  oppressing  the  people  for  several  hundred  years, 
and  destroying  their  temples.  The  builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  specially  the  object  of  popular  dislike,  which  embodied  itself 
in  the  Greek  tale  of  his  compelling  his  own  daughter  to  prostitu- 
tion, in  order  to  obtain  funds  for  his  work2.  Manetho  admits  the 
impiety  of  his  Souphis3,  but  represents  him  to  have  also  composed 
"  the  sacred  book,"  the  subject  of  which  is  unknown. 

Soris,  the  king  whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  this  dynasty, 
is  thought  to  be  the  same  with  the  Shoure,  whose  shield  has  been 
discovered  in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis4.  In  the  present  state  of 
our  knowledge,  however,  little  reliance  can  be  placed  on  these 
insulated  identifications.  What  is  more  important  is,  that  the 
dominion  of  Egypt,  in  the  aera  of  the  building  of  the  Pyramids, 
extended  to  the  northern  part  of  the  Arabian  peninsula.  The 
motive  of  the  Egyptian  kings  for  establishing  themselves  here  was 
evidently  to  obtain  possession  of  the  copper-mines,  which  have  been 

1  Kenrick's  Egypt  of  Herodotus,  p.  167.  2  Her.  2,  126. 

3  Possibly  the  idea  of  impiety  may  have  been  connected  with  the  erec- 
tion of  a  building  so  lofty  that  it  seemed  to  invade  the  skies.  Comp.  Gen. 
xi.  4.    "Let  us  make  us  a  tower  whose  top  may  reach  to  heaven." 

4  Lesueur,  Chronol.  p.  271,  311.  Birch  (Vyse,  3,  22),  gives  the  name 
Shoure  to  a  king  whose  shield  is  found  at  Abouseir,  and  read  by  Lepsius 
Arachura  (Bunsen,  B.  2,  99). 


118 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


already  described1.  The  whole  land  was  called  in  hieroglyphics 
Mafkat,  or  the  Copper  Land2,  and  the  principal  mines  wore  at 
Wadi  Magara  and  Sarabit  el  Kadira.  Large  mounds  of  ore,  and 
masses  of  scoriae,  attest  the  extent  of  the  ancient  operations. 
Numerous  stelae  record  the  names  of  the  kings  in  whose  reigns  the 
mines  were  wrought.  Those  at  Wadi  Magara  are  the  oldest. 
Both  the  Chufus,  Shoure,  and  a  king  whose  name  is  found  in  the 
Pyramid  of  Reega,  and  read  Ousrenre  or  Ranseser3,  are  seen  in  acts 
of  adoration,  with  dates  of  their  respective  reigns.  Shoure  is 
represented  as  in  the  act  of  smiting  a  captive  whose  hair  he  grasps, 
and  therefore  probably  made  conquests  in  this  region. 

The  seventh  king  in  Manetho's  libt  is  Sebercheres  ;  this  has  been 
corrected  by  Lepsius  into  Nephercheres4,  and  identifiec^with  the 
Nefrukera  whose  name  occurs  in  the  necropolis  of  Memphis,  and 
on  the  tablet  of  Abydos  follows  that  of  Menkera.  A  Nepher- 
cheres, however,  is  actually  found  in  the  fifth  dynasty  of  Manetho, 
who  may  seem  to  have  a  preferable  claim. 

The  glimpse  which  we  thus  obtain  of  the  condition  of  Egypt,  in 
the  fifth  century  after  Menes,  according  to  the  lowest  computation, 
is  far  from  satisfying  our  desire  for  details,  but  on  the  other  hand 
it  reveals  to  us  some  general  facts  which  lead  to  important  infer- 
ences. In  all  its  great  characteristics  it  was  the  same  as  the  Egypt 
of  a  thousand  years  later.  It  was  a  well-organized  monarchy ; 
the  tombs  of  Gizeh  preserve  the  names  and  offices  of  various 
public  functionaries,  military  and  civil.    Its  religious  system  was 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  51. 

8  See  Lepsius,  Tour  to  the  Peniusula  of  Sinai.  Comp.  Hieroglyph,  of  the 
Eg.  Society,  pi.  41  Xo. 

3  Birch,  in  Vyse,  3,  12.  2,  5.  The  block  on  which  the  name  is  found  at 
Reega  appears  to  have  been  taken  from  some  other  monument.  Among 
the  hieroglyphics  is  the  figure  of  an  obelisk. 

4  The  pramomen  Neferkera  has  been  found  also  on  the  cover  of  a  small 
ivory  box,  now  in  the  Louvre,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  it  is  of  such  high 
antiquity  (Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  15). 


THE  FOURTH  DYNASTY.  119 

already  elaborated  and  extended  throughout  the  country;  the 
Memphite  sovereign,  the  second  Chufu,  takes  for  his  difference  the 
hieroglyphic  of  the  tutelary  god  of  Thebes  and  Elephantine.  On 
the  coffin  of  Menkera  we  see  the  same  formulary  phrases  which  are 
familiar  to  us  in  so  many  later  funereal  inscriptions1.  The  deceased 
king  is  identified  with  Osiris  ;  his  regal  dignity  is  indicated  by  the 
bee  and  branch  prefixed ;  the  same  epithet,  "  living  for  ever,"  is 
given  him,  which  is  assigned  to  Ptolemy  on  the  Rosetta  stone. 
The  system  of  hieroglyphic  writing  was  the  same,  in  all  its  leading 
peculiarities,  as  it  continued  to  the  end  of  the  monarchy  of  the 
Pharaohs.  We  possess  no  contemporary  manuscripts,  but  the 
inscriptions  in  the  pyramids  show  that  the  linear  hieroglyphic  had 
been  already  introduced,  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  hieratic. 
As  the  character  of  the  inkstand  and  reed-pen  is  seen  in  these,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  linen  or  papyrus  was  already  used  as  a  writing 
material.  We  have  no  statuary  of  this  age,  but  the  hieroglyphics 
in  the  tombs  are  cut  with  great  force  and  precision.  While  the 
present  surface  only  of  the  pyramids  was  examined,  they  might 
seem  a  barbarous  monument  of  wasted  labor  rather  than  of  skill ; 
but  the  accurate  finishing  of  the  masonry  with  which  the  passages 
and  even  the  exterior  were  lined  and  cased,  and  the  precise  orien- 
tation of  the  whole,  show  that  both  art  and  science  had  attained 
to  considerable  perfection2. 

The  relation  of  the  Memphian  monarchy  to  Upper  Egypt  remains 
obscure.  No  mention  is  even  incidentally  made  of  Thebes;  a  city 
may  have  existed  there,  but  not  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  the  seat 

1  Birch  in  Vyse,  2,  96. 

a  These  inferences  are  fully  supported  by  the  drawings  from  'he  tombs 
near  the  Pyramids  contained  in  the  "Denkmaler  aus  JEgypten  und  /Ethi- 
opien,"  the  fruit  of  the  Prussian  expedition  under  Lepsius;  of  which  the 
First  Part  has  appeared  while  this  work  was  passing  through  the  press. 
The  opinion  expressed  in  vol.  i.  p.  229,  of  the  inferiority  of  art  in  this  age, 
must  now  be  somewhat  modified. 


120 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


of  a  rival  power  to  Memphis.  Hitherto  no  trace  of  the  dominion  of 
the  Memphian  kings  has  been  found  at  Thebes  or  elsewhere  in  Upper 
Egypt,  except  some  alabaster  vases  from  Abydos,  bearing  the  stand- 
ard of  Chufu  ;  and  portable  antiquities  afford  no  decisive  evidence. 
But  this  is  no  proof  of  Theban  independence,  since  the  fixed  monu- 
ments of  this  age  are  entirely  sepulchral ;  and  the  Memphian  kings 
and  their  great  officers  would  be  buried  near  their  own  capital.  If 
Thebes  has  no  monuments  of  Memphian  dominion,  neither  has  it 
any  of  its  own,  and  it  appears  probable  that  till  the  12th  dynasty 
of  Manetho  it  continued  to  be  a  place  of  little  account. 

Fifth  Dynasty. 

Eight  kings  from  Elephantine1.    (Thirty-one,  Euseb.) 

Years. 


1.  Usercheres  reigned   28 

2.  Sephres   13 

3.  Nephercheres   20 

4.  SlSIRES   7 

5.  Cheres   20 

6.  Rathures   44 

7.  Mexcheres   9 

8.  Tancheres   44 

9.  Onnos   33 


Total    ....  218 

Although  the  heading  says  eight  kings,  nine  are  mentioned,  and 
the  sum  agrees  with  the  separate  numbers2. 

1  Eusebius  has  transferred  here  by  mistake  the  names  of  Othoes  and 
Phiops  from  the  6th  dynasty. 

2  Bunsen,  2,  190  (Germ  ),  would  remove  Onnos  to  the  beginning  of  the 
6th  dynasty,  and  supposes  that  Othoes  stands  there  by  a  false  reading  of 
the  transcribers.  Onnos,  it  is  true,  has  33  years  and  Othoes  30,  but  thia 
hut  number  is  assigned  to  Onnos  in  the  Turin  papyrus. 


THE   FIFTH  DYXASTY. 


121 


The  supposition  that  some  of  the  dynasties  of  Manetho  are  col- 
lateral, is  nowhere  more  probable  than  in  regard  to  this  dynasty  of 
Elephantine  kings.  No  one  fact  is  recorded  concerning  them. 
They  appear,  however,  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Memphite  dynasty,  as 
the  names  Sephres,  Nephercheres,  Mencheres,  bear  a  close  analogy 
to  those  which  we  have  already  found  in  use  among  them.  Use- 
serkef  has  been  found  by  Lepsius1  among  the  tombs  of  Gizeh,  and 
he  seems  to  be  the  Usercheres  of  Manetho.  Although  lie  stands 
at  the  head  of  this  dynasty,  yet  if  it  were  a  derivative  and  depend- 
ent line,  he  might  be  interred  among  his  ancestors  of  the  Mem- 
phite dynasty.  Snephres  (Snefru),  which  we  may  suppose  Mane- 
tho to  have  written,  instead  of  Sephres,  has  also  been  found  at 
Gizeh2  and  Karnak ;  and  Nephercheres,  the  third  in  his  list,  fol- 
lows Menkera  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos,  and  has  been  found  on 
alabaster  vases  from  Abydos3.  The  tablet  of  Abydos,  however, 
does  not  agree  with  Manetho  ;  the  shields  which  follow  that  of 
Mencheres  exhibit  different  names  from  his4,  yet  names  combined 
out  of  similar  elements,  so  as  to  favor  the  supposition  that  they 
contain  another  derivative,  though  not  royal  line5.  Sesienre  would 
be  the  reading,  according  to  Lepsius,  of  the  name  usually  read 
Ousrenre  (see  vol.  i.  p.  262),  and  this  would  answer  to  Sisires, 
No.  4.  Unas  or  Onas  is  found  in  a  fragment  of  the  Royal  List  of 
Turin,  and  appears  to  be  the  Onnos  of  Manetho6.  The  phonetic 
value  of  some  of  the  characters  in  these  early  shields  is  uncertain. 

1  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  180,  Germ.  Lesueur,  p.  312. 

2  Denkmaler  aus  ^Egypten  und  JEthiopien,  altes  Reich.  Abth.  iL  Bl.  2. 

3  Bunsen,  2,  186.  He  observes  that  the  name  is  written  with  a  different 
character  from  the  earlier  Xephercheres. 

4  See  Wilkinson's  copy  in  Hierogl.  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  pi.  47.  Some 
of  them  are  no  longer  legible  on  the  tablet  in  the  British  Museum. 

6  Bunsen,  u.  s.  p.  188. 

•  Bunsen,  184.  He  supposes  a  name  beginning  with  the  sign  of  Thoth  to 
be  Tatkeres,  which  he  conjecturally  substitutes  for  Tancheres,  eighth  in  the 
list    This  king  is  supposed  by  others  to  be  represented  by  an  inscription  at 

VOL.  II.  6 


122 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


If  Othoes  were  the  same  as  Onnos,  it  would  appear  that  this 
Elephantine  dynasty  was  brought  to  a  close  by  a  conspiracy  of  his 
life-guards,  by  whom  he  was  murdered,  and  a  new  Memphite 
dynasty  succeeded.  If,  however,  the  Elephantine  was  not  a  sove- 
reign, but  a  collateral  dynasty,  then  the  kings  whose  names  are 
about  to  be  enumerated  must  be  regarded  as  the  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  the  fourth  dynasty,  in  which  the  builders  of  pyramids 
were  included.  It  is  possible  that  these  Elephantine  kings  maybe 
the  Ethiopians  of  whom  Herodotus  speaks1,  Elephantine  being  on 
the  boundary  of  that  country,  but  the  number,  eighteen,  does  not 
agree. 

Sixth  Dynasty.    Six  Memphite  kings. 

Years. 


1.  Othoes  reigned   30 

He  was  killed  by  his  life-guards. 

2.  Phios   53 

3.  Methosuphis   7 

4.  Phiops.    Beginning  to  reign  at  six  years  old,  he  con- 

tinued to   100 

6.  MENTHESUPHI8  1 

6.  Nitocris,  the  most  spirited  and  beautiful  woman  of  her 
time,  of  a  ruddy  complexion.  She  erected  the  Third 
Pyramid,  and  reigned  12 


203 

Saccarah,  read  thus :  "  The  king  (Tankera),  son  of  the  Sun  (Assa)."  One 
character  in  the  first  shield,  however,  is  doubtful,  and  according  to  analogy, 
Assa  should  be  the  proper  name  (Lesueur,  Chronologie,  p.  312). 

1  2,  100.  "  The  priests  read  to  me  a  list  of  330  other  kings,  and  in  so 
many  generations  18  were  Ethiopians."  Lepsius  considers  both  the  5th  and 
6th  dynasty  as  Ethiopian  (Einl.  1,  255),  and  makes  them  amount  together  to 
15,  to  which  are  to  be  added  the  three  Ethiopian  kings  of  the  25th  dynasty. 
The  evidence  for  these  arrangements  has  not  yet  been  published,  nor  that 
on  the  ground  of  which  he  pronounces  (517)  that  the  5th  dynasty  was  not 
collateral. 


THE  SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


123 


Eusebius  gives  only  Nitocris  by  name,  but  the  number  of  years 
is  the  same.  The  similarity  of  the  names  Phios  and  Methosuphis 
and  Phiops  and  Menthesuphis  in  this  list,  has  given  rise  to  a  sus- 
picion that  they  are  really  the  same.  We  find  in  Eratosthenes  the 
following  succession : — 

Years. 

Apappus  100  within  an  hour. 

A  nameless  king   1 

Nitocris,  instead  of  her  husband  6 

It  would  be  against  all  probability  that  such  coincidences  should 
be  accidental1.  The  names  Apappus  and  Phiops  do  not  indeed  in 
their  actual  form  appear  the  same.  The  hieroglyphics  of  the  king 
whose  name  is  read  Pepi  may  however  be  read  Apap,  and  if  we 
retrench  the  final  *  from  Phiops,  which  was  an  addition  made  to 
give  it  a  Greek  termination,  we  have  a  name  also  not  very  remote 
from  Pepi.  The  shields  of  Pepi  have  been  found  at  Chenoboscion 
and  elsewhere  in  much  greater  numbers  than  those  of  any  preced- 
ing king,  though  not  with  dates  which  confirm  the  account  of  his 
extraordinary  long  reign2,  the  sixteenth  year  being  the  highest; 
nor  has  any  yet  been  found  in  Lower  Egypt3,  a  singular  circum- 
stance, as  the  dynasty  is  called  Memphite.  The  identification  of 
Pepi  with  Phiops  and  Apappus  must  therefore  be  considered  as 
still  problematical.  Xo  other  name  belonging  to  this  dynasty  has 
been  identified  hitherto  on  the  monuments.  There  is  a  group 
which  reads  Mentopt  or  Mentuotep,  twice  occurring,  one  of  which 
Bunsen4  refers  to  Mentkeophis,  his  correction  of  the  Menthesuphis 
of  the  lists,  and  the  other  to  the  eighth  dynasty.  They  may  belong 
to  the  Middle  monarchy  or  to  the  eleventh  dynasty.  A  fragment  of 

1 1  have  already  explained  (p.  82  of  this  vol.)  the  principle  on  which  I 
believe  the  list  of  Eratosthenes  to  have  been  compiled. 

2  The  long  life  of  Phiops  i3  not  more  incredible  than  that  of  Gorgias  of 
Leontini,  who  is  said  (Cic.  Sen.  5)  to  have  lived  to  107. 

"  Lepsius,  EinL  1,  265.  *  B.  2,  194.  Ark.  p.  64,  note. 


124 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  Canon  of  Turin  contains,  without  a  name,  the  number  90  years 
as  the  duration  of  a  reign1,  and  from  its  length  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  refers  to  Phiops.  It  is  followed  by  a  date  of  1  year 
1  month,  which  appears  to  be  that  of  Menthesuphis. 

The  figure  of  Pepi  is  found  in  a  singular  combination  with  that 
of  another,  whose  name  is  read  Remai,  or  Maire.  The  two  princes 
appear  seated  on  their  thrones  in  the  Hall  of  Assembly,  wearing 
one  the  crown  of  the  upper,  the  other  that  of  the  lower  country ; 
whence  Wilkinson  concludes2  that  either  they  were  contemporary 
sovereigns,  one  ruling  at  Thebes  and  the  other  at  Memphis,  or  that 
Pepi  was  the  phonetic  name  of  Remai,  and  that  they  were  the 
same  monarch.  This  distinction  of  the  names  becomes  hencefor- 
ward important  and  will  require  to  be  explained. 

In  the  oldest  monuments,  as  those  of  the  pyramids  and  tombs 
of  Gizeh,  the  names  of  the  Egyptian  kings  are  enclosed  in  oval 
rings  or  shields,  and  each  king  has  only  one.  The  characters 
included  in  the  shield  are  phonetic,  and  express  the  name  of  the 
king  as  it  was  pronounced,  Mena,  Chufu,  Shafre,  &c.  In  later 
times,  however,  each  king  has  usually  two  shields ;  over  the  first 
'are  placed  a  bee  and  a  branch  of  a  plant3 ;  over  the  second  the 
figure  of  a  vulpanser  and  the  disk  of  the  sun,  which  are  read  Son 
of  the  Sun.  Where  two  shields  are  found,  the  second  always  con- 
tains the  name  of  the  sovereign  in  phonetic  characters;  thus  in  the 
eighteenth  and  succeeding  dynasties  it  is  the  name  in  the  second 
shield  which  corresponds  to  the  lists  of  Manetho.  The  first  shield, 
if  there  are  two,  contains  always  the  disk  of  the  Sun  or  Re,  and 
joined  to  this  two  or  more  characters.  Champollion  considered 
the  signs  included  in  these  shields  as  symbolical  titles,  rather  than 
names  of  the  kings ;  and  they  are  not  alphabetical  letters,  like 
those  of  the  second  shields.  They  are,  however,  in  one  sense  pho- 
netic ;  for  the  objects  and  ideas  which  they  represent  had  of  course 

1  Lesueur,  p.  266.  2  Manners  and  Customs,  3,  282. 

■  See  PL  IL  vol.  1,  Nos.  11,  12,  and  p.  270. 


THE  SIXTH  DYNASTY, 


i25 


names  in  the  old  Egyptian  language,  and  these,  if  pronounced, 
would  become  a  compound  name.  Thus  the  two  shields  in  Plate 
II.  11,  12,  read,  "The  king  (Re-seser-Tmei,  Sun,  Guardian  of  the 
Truth),  Son  of  the  Sun  (Amunmai  Rameses)."  Each  king  had  a 
combination  of  these  signs,  by  which  he  is  as  readily  distinguished 
from  all  others  as  by  his  phonetic  shield ;  but  those  of  the  same 
family  usually  preserved  a  general  similarity  in  their  signs.  In  the 
case  of  the  two  royal  figures  on  the  monument  of  the  Cosseir  road, 
the  shield  on  the  left,  if  they  are  considered  to  be  distinct  persons, 
will  be  read  Remai  or  Maire ;  but  if  the  same,  then  it  will  be  con- 
sidered as  a  title  of  Papi,  and  explained  "  beloved  of  Re,"  which  is 
the  meaning  of  the  word  Remai.  Such  a  title,  it  has  been  thought, 
might  give  rise  to  second  names,  as  we  sometimes  call  the  Ptole- 
mies simply  Philadelphus  or  Epiphanes.  Lepsius,  however,  has 
observed1  that  he  has  not  found  a  single  indisputable  example  of 
the  titular  shield  passing  into  a  proper  name2 ;  and  its  phonetic 
reading  is  in  most  cases  conjectural. 

There  is  a  third  way  in  which  the  kings  of  Egypt  were  distin- 
guished. Each  had  a  standard3  on  which  a  group  of  characters  is 
represented,  sometimes  placed  beside  the  shields,  and  which  serves, 
to  discriminate  them  in  the  absence  of  these.  On  the  obelisks, 
where  all  their  titles  are  usually  set  forth,  the  standard  is  found 
immediately  under  the  pyramidion ;  over  it  is  represented  the 
hawk  of  Horus,  sometimes  crowned  with  the  pschent,  and  accom- 
panied by  the  uraeus  or  royal  serpent  and  the  disk  of  the  sun  ; 
the  standard  itself  contains  a  group  of  symbolical  characters  not 
strictly  phonetic,  but  like  those  of  the  titular  shield  capable  of 
passing  into  a  name,  by  the  pronunciation  of  the  words  answering 

1  Einleitung,  1,  p.  255. 

a  Bunsen  supposes,  though  with  little  probability,  that  Papi,  or  Phiops 
Apappus,  with  the  title  Maire,  is  the  Moeris  of  the  Greeks,  the  author  of  the 
great  works  in  the  Fyoum,  B.  2,  209. 

•  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  156. 


126 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


to  the  objects  delineated.  An  example  of  this  may  be  seen  in 
PI.  II.  No.  15,  where  the  standard  of  Rameses  III.  is  given.  It  is 
surmounted  by  the  hawk  of  Horus  crowned,  with  the  uraeus  and 
disk  ;  the  banner  itself  reads,  "  The  strong  bull,  beloved  of  Truth." 
The  hawk  sometimes  appears  (ib.  15)  as  an  emblem  of  royalty, 
with  the  character  for  gold,  and  is  called  "  the  golden  Horus." 

The  standard  and  the  titular  shield  were  assumed  no  doubt  by 
the  king  on  his  accession  ;  the  phonetic  name  belonged  to  him  as 
an  individual,  but  when  he  ascended  the  throne  he  enclosed  it 
within  a  shield  as  a  mark  of  royalty.  The  standard  or  the  titular 
shield  alone  is  sufficient  to  distinguish  one  king  from  another ; 
and  the  phonetic  shield  is  not  found  on  the  tablet  of  Karnak,  nor 
that  of  Abydos,  except  in  the  case  of  the  king  by  whom  it  was 
erected  ;  but  it  is  the  phonetic  shield  which  connects  them  with 
history.  So  the  armorial  bearings  of  a  modern  sovereign  discrimi- 
nate him  from  others  ;  but  it  is  only  by  the  knowledge  of  his  name 
that  his  historical  place  is  ascertained. 

The  sixth  name  in  the  list  of  Manetho  is  that  of  Nitocris,  whom 
he  describes  as  a  woman  of  great  beauty  and  spirit,  and  the  builder 
#of  the  third  pyramid.  She  is  no  doubt  the  same  as  the  Nitocris 
of  Herodotus,  if  identity  may  be  predicated  of  persons  who  agree  in 
name,  but  differ  in  almost  everything  else.  The  Nitocris  of  Hero- 
dotus, after  having  drowned  the  Egyptians  who  had  put  her  brother 
to  death,  committed  suicide  by  plunging  herself  into  a  pit  full  of 
ashes — a  mode  of  destruction  common  as  a  punishment  among  the 
Persians,  but  unheard  of  among  the  Egyptians.  The  Nitocris  of 
Manetho  is  the  builder  of  the  third  pyramid,  a  work  not  to  be 
accomplished  in  the  short  interval  between  her  accession  and  her 
suicide.  Another  difficulty  is,  that  we  have  seen  that  Mencheres 
was  deposited  in  the  third  pyramid,  and  is  therefore  to  be  pre- 
sumed to  have  been  its  builder.  This  difficulty  has  been  partly 
removed  by  the  researches  of  Colonel  H.  Vyse,  and  the  ingenious 
combinations  of  Bunsen.    By  a  reference  to  the  description  already 


THE  SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


127 


given  of  this  pyramid1,  it  will  be  seen,  that  in  a  large  chamber, 
which  is  nearly  under  its  centre,  a  sarcophagus  of  red  granite  had 
been  placed,  the  fragments  of  which  are  strewed  about*.  The  sar- 
cophagus of  Mencheres  was  in  an  interior  and  lower  chamber,  to 
which  a  passage  led  from  the  larger.  This  larger  chamber,  besides 
the  passage  by  which  it  is  now  entered  from  the  exterior,  has 
another  going  off  at  the  same  angle,  but  which  never  reaches  the 
exterior.  The  upper  passage  had  been  worked  by  the  chisel  from 
the  north  or  exterior,  the  lower  from  the  interior  ;  whence  Perring 
concludes  that  the  upper  must  have  been  formed  first,  and  the 
lower  cut  outward  through  the  pyramid3.  These  appearances  have 
been  explained  by  supposing  that  Mencheres  built  a  pyramid  of 
much  smaller  size  than  the  present,  of  which  the  entrance  was  the 
passage  which  is  now  closed  up.  It  would  have  reached  the 
exterior  at  about  the  same  height  above  the  ground  as  the  pre- 
sent passage,  and  the  pyramid,  if  its  angle  of  inclination  were  the 
same  as  that  of  the  present  structure,  would  have  a  base  of  ISO 
feet  and  a  height  of  145.  In  this  state  Mencheres  left  his  pyramid  ; 
Nitocris  enlarged  it  to  its  actual  dimensions,  cased  it  with  red 
granite,  and  designed  at  least  that  her  body  should  be  placed  in  it, 
but  was  perhaps  frustrated  in  this  purpose  by  her  own  suicide  or 
the  vengeance  of  the  people.  Thus  the  traditions  which  ascribed 
it  to  Mencheres  and  to  Nitocris  would  have  each  a  portion  of 
truth. 

Another  story  is  related  by  Herodotus  which  at  first  appears 
simply  absurd — that  this  pyramid  was  built  by  a  celebrated  Gret-k 
courtezan  of  Naucratis  of  the  times  of  Amasis  or  Psammitichus, 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  110. 

3  .So  Bunsen  says  (B.  2,  168),  perhaps  from  the  personal  communication 
of  Perring ;  but  Col.  Vyse  says  (2,  81),  that  these  pieces  of  the  granite  could 
not  have  been  fragments  of  a  sarcophagus.  The  portcu  lises  were  of  this 
material,  which  was  also  used  in  the  passages. 

*  Howard  Vyse,  2,  79.    See  vol.  i  p.  110,  of  this  work. 


128 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


respecting  whom  Strabo  tells  a  tale  very  similar  to  that  of  Cinde- 
rella and  her  slipper.  As  she  was  bathing,  an  eagle  snatched  her 
shoe  from  the  attendant,  and  carrying  it  to  Memphis,  dropped  it  in 
the  lap  of  the  king,  who  was  sitting  in  the  open  air  to  administer 
justice.  Charmed  with  the  elegance  of  the  shoe,  the  king  sent 
through  the  land  to  discover  its  owner,  and  having  found  her  at 
Naucratis,  made  her  his  queen,  and  after  her  death  she  received 
the  third  pyramid  as  her  burial-place1.  It  was  acutely  observed 
by  Zoega,  however,  that  the  courtezan,  Rhodopis,  had  been  created 
by  the  interpreters  out  of  the  queen  Nitocris2.  Both  were  celebrat- 
ed for  their  beauty,  and  the  name  Rhodopis  or  "  rosy-faced "  is 
exactly  descriptive  of  Nitocris,  who  is  said  to  have  been  "ruddy  in 
complexion." 

No  such  name  as  Nitocris  has  been  found  upon  the  monuments 
of  this  age ;  but  it  occurs,  written  Neitakreti,  in  the  Canon  of 
Turin3.  If  we  may  venture  to  combine  Herodotus  with  Manetho, 
the  husband  whom  she  succeeded,  and  whose  death  she  avenged, 
was  Menthesuphis,  who  reigned  only  one  year.  The  following 
dynasty  points  to  some  violent  change  in  the  government,  to  which 
the  death  of  Nitocris  gave  occasion. 


Seventh  Dynasty. 

Seventy  Memphite  kings,  who  reigned  seventy  days       ...  70 
(Eusebius,  Five  Memphite  kings  who  reigned  75  days.  Arm. 
75  years.) 

Eighth  Dynasty. 

Twenty-eight  Memphite  kings,  who  reigned  

(Eusebius,  Five  Memphite  kings,  who  reigned  100  yeara) 

1  Strabo,  17,  p.  808. 

a  De  Obelise,  p.  390.    See  also  Bunsen,  2,  p.  236,  Germ. 
8  Lepsius,  Einl.  1,  262.    Lesueur,  p.  313,  places  it  in  the  eighth  dynasty. 


Years. 
146 


NINTH  TO  ELEVENTH  DYNASTIES.  129 

Ninth  Dynasty. 

Years. 

Nineteen  Heracleopolitan  kings,  who  reigned  409 


(Eusebius,  Four  Heracleopolitan  kings,  who  reigned  100  years.) 
The  first  of  whom,  Achthoes,  the  most  atrocious  of  all  who 
had  preceded  him,  did  much  mischief  to  the  people  of  all 
Egypt,  and  afterwards  fell  into  madness  and  was  destroyed 


by  a  crocodile. 

Tenth  Dynasty. 

Nineteen  Heeacxeopolttan  kings,  who  reigned  185 

Eleventh  Dynasty, 

Sixteen  Diospolitan  kings,  who  reigned  43 

After  whom  Ammenemes   16 


"Thus  far  Manetho  brought  his  first  volume,  altogether  192 
kings,  2300  years,  70  days." 

The  difficulties  which  this  concluding  portion  of  the  first  volume 
of  Manetho's  dynasties  offers  are  very  great.  The  seventy  Mem- 
phite  kings,  who  reigned  seventy  days,  must  have  been  a  tempo- 
rary government,  formed  of  the  chief  men  of  the  kingdom,  and 
ruling  each  for  a  day;  for,  as  Herodotus  (2,  147)  observes,  the 
Egyptians  could  not  exist  without  kingly  government.  The  Roman 
senators,  on  the  death  of  Romulus,  exercised  authority  each  for  five 
days1.  The  number  of  seventy  days  is  no  doubt  correct,  for  it 
occurs  again  in  the  summation  at  the  end,  and  can  only  have 
arisen  here,  as  the  odd  number  of  days  is  not  elsewhere  mentioned 
in  giving  the  length  of  each  king's  reign.    Eusebius  has  made  a 

1  Liv.  1,  17.  Rem  inter  se  centum  patres,  decern  decuriis  factis,  singu- 
lisque  in  singulas  decurias  creatis  qui  summae  rerum  praeessent,  consociant; 
decern  imperitabant,  unus  cum  insignibus  imperii  et  lictoribus  erat:  quin- 
que  dierum  spatio  finiebatur  imperium  ac  perjomnes  in  orbem  ibat.  Comp. 
Diod.  1,  66. 

6* 


130 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


correction,  but  as  it  appears  arbitrarily,  arid  reads,  according  to  the 
Armenian  version,  "five  kings  who  reigned  seventy-five  years"; 
but  then  it  would  be  unexplained  how  seventy  days  should  appear 
in  the  sum  of  the  first  volume.  Other  corrections  have  been  sug- 
gested, but  they  are  too  arbitrary  to  be  received1. 

There  were  in  Egypt  two  towns  called  Heracleopolis2.  Hera- 
cleopolis  Magna  was  situated  at  the  entrance  of  the  valley  of  the 
Fyoum,  on  an  island,  as  the  ancients  called  it,  formed  by  the  Nile, 
the  Bahr  Jusuf,  and  a  canal.  After  Memphis  and  Heliopolis  it 
was  probably  the  most  important  place  in  Lower  Egypt.  Hera- 
cleopolis Parva,  which  is  only  mentioned  in  later  times,  was  near 
Pelusium,  in  the  Sethroite  nome,  and  beyond  the  westernmost 
branch  of  the  Delta.  If  it  existed  under  the  old  Monarchy,  it  was 
quite  insignificant,  so  that  it  is  not  likely  its  king  Achthoes  could 
have  inflicted  much  mischief  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  Egypt. 
But  if  a  powerful  state  sprung  up  at  Heracleopolis  Magna,  after  a 
revolution  at  Memphis,  which  left  the  government  in  a  feeble  con- 
dition, it  was  well  adapted  by  its  position  relatively  to  the  Upper 
and  Lower  country  and  the  Fyoum,  to  domineer  over  them  all. 
With  the  eighth  dynasty  Memphis  appears  to  have  lost  its  pre- 
eminence. It  passed  first  to  Heracleopolis,  afterwards  to  Thebes, 
finally  to  the  towns  of  Lower  Egypt,  Tanis,  Bubastis,  Sais.  We 
hear  nothing  more  of  a  Memphite  dynasty. 

The  tyranny  of  the  founder  Achthoes  is  absolutely  all  we  know 
of  these  two  Heracleopolitan  dynasties.    The  text  of  Africanus 

1  Bunsen  would  transplant  twenty  (K)  from  the  number  of  reigns  of  the 
eighth  dynasty  (KZ),  which  he  thinks  should  be  eight  instead  of  twenty- 
eight,  and  with  Eusebius  read  five  as  the  number  of  kings  in  the  seventh. 
The  whole  would  then  stand  thus : 

Seventh  Dynasty. — Five  Memphite  kings,  reigned  20  years  *70  days. 

Eighth  Dynasty. — Eight  Memphite  kings,  reigned  146  years.  (B.  2,  p. 
248,  Germ.) 

8  Strabo,  17,  p.  789,  809.  Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.  Champollion,  L'Egypte  sous  les 
Pharaons,  1,  309,  2,  80.    Ptolemy,  Geog.  4,  5. 


NINTH  TO   ELEVENTH  DYNASTIES. 


131 


assigns  to  them  together  the  incredible  length  of  594  years ;  that 
of  Eusebius  285.  To  a  dynasty  reigning  here  at  the  entrance  of 
the  Fyoura,  it  seems  most  natural  to  assign  the  commencement  of 
those  great  works  which  tradition  connected  with  the  name  of 
Moeris.  No  king  of  that  name  has  been  found  in  the  lists  or  the 
monuments ;  and  therefore  probably  Moeris  is  the  designation  of  the 
natural  collection  of  waters  at  the  western  side  of  the  Fyoum,  the 
Birket-el-Kerun.  The  word  Mou  in  Coptic  signifies  water,  and 
appears  to  be  the  first  syllable  of  this  word,  which  was  variously 
spelt  Moiris  or  Muris  by  the  Greeks.  Joined  to  m1,  which  denotes 
the  south  in  the  same  language,  it  would  naturally  describe,  in  con- 
trast with  the  Mediterranean,  this  great  southern  lake,  which  in  its 
extent,  the  quality  of  its  waters  and  the  form  of  its  shores,  so  much 
resembled  the  sea,  as  to  suggest  the  idea  that  it  had  been  originally 
a  portion  of  the  Mediterranean2.  The  dimensions  assigned  by 
Herodotus  (2,  149)  to  the  lake  Moeris  (3600  stadia)  cannot  have 
belonged  to  an  excavation  in  the  centre  of  the  Fyoum  ;  nor  would 
any  one  describe  the  length  of  a  canal  as  the  perimeter  of  a  lake. 
It  is  indeed  impossible  to  reconcile  all  the  accounts  which  the 
ancients  give  us  of  the  lake  Moeris;  but  one  circumstance  appears 
decisive :  if  the  Birket-el-Kerun  be  not  the  lake  Moeris  of  Hero- 
dotus, Diodorus,  and  Strabo,  these  three  eye-witnesses  have  passed 
over  one  of  the  most  remarkable  objects  in  Egypt.  There  was  no 
doubt  also  an  artificial  reservoir  in  the  centre  of  the  Fyoum,  which 
retained  the  water  of  the  inundation  to  be  dispersed  when  it  was 
needed  over  the  adjacent  country ;  and  Linant  has  partially  traced 
its  embankment.8  That  it  was  designed  to  render  this  service  to 
any  other  district  than  the  Fyoum  is  not  asserted  by  the  ancients 
and  appears  improbable. 

1  The  terminations  res  and  ris  are  constantly  interchanged.  Thus  we 
have  Uaphris,  Sesostris,  Seeochris,  as  well  as  Mencheres,  Nephercheres,  tho 
origin  of  both  forms  being  Re  or  Ra. 

*  Strabo,  1,  50.  11,  809.  8  See  vol.  i.  p.  42. 


132 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


If  the  Fyoum  was  rendered  habitable  and  fertile  by  the  kings  of 
the  Heracleopolitan  dynasties,  it  will  be  explained  how  it  becomes 
of  so  much  importance  under  the  twelfth.  Sesortasen  erected  an 
obelisk  and  Ammenemes  built  the  Labyrinth  there ;  previously  to 
this  time  we  find  no  monument  and  no  mention  of  it  in  history. 

The  name  Achthoes  is  the  only  one  preserved  in  the  lists,  between 
Nitocris,  the  last  of  the  sixth  dynasty,  and  Ammenemes,  the  last 
of  the  eleventh.  There  is  therefore  no  room  for  any  comparison 
between  the  lists  and  the  monuments.  Eratosthenes  has  also  no 
name  which  corresponds  with  the  monuments  in  this  interval1. 

Achthoes  is  said  to  have  been  killed  by  a  crocodile.  This  cir- 
cumstance may  have  been  invented  to  explain  the  animosity  which 
the  people  of  Heracleopolis  nourished  against  the  crocodile ;  and 
their  worship  of  the  ichneumon,  which  was  believed  not  only  to 
destroy  its  eggs,  but  even  to  creep  down  its  throat  and  eat  away 
its  vitals2.  The  mention  of  this  circumstance  is  an  additional  pre- 
sumption that  Heracleopolis  Magna  was  the  seat  of  this  dynasty. 


THE  SECOND  VOLUME  OF  MAN'ETHO. 


Twelfth  Dynasty.    Seven  Diospolitan  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Sesonchosis,  the  son  of  Ammenemes,  reigned  46 

2.  Ammenemes,  who  was  killed  by  his  own  guards  of  the  bed- 

chamber  38 

3.  Sesostris  48 

He  subdued  all  Asia  in  nine  years,  and  part  of  Europe  as  far 
as  Thrace  (everywhere  erecting  memorials  of  his  occupatipn 

1  Comp.  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  252  foil.,  who  has  proposed  various  corrections 
of  Eratosthenes.  In  his  system  the  two  Heracleopolitan  dynasties  are 
collateral. 

2  Strabo,  11,  p.  812. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY.  133 

Years. 

of  the  nations,  engraving  masculine  emblems  on  tablets 
where  the  men  had  been  yaliant,  feminine  where  they  had 
been  cowardly),  so  that  he  was  esteemed  by  the  Egyptians 
first  after  Osiris. 
(Eusebius  adds,  He  is  said  to  have  been  four  cubits  three 


palms  two  fingers  in  height.) 

4.  Lachares  (Lamaris,  Eus.,  Lampares,  Arm.)   8 

He  prepared  the  Labyrinth  in  the  Arsinoite  nome  as  a  tomb 
for  himself. 

5.1  Ameties  8 

6.  Ammenemes  8 

1.  Scemiophris,  his  sister  4 


160 

Until  a  recent  time,  this  dynasty,  notwithstanding  the  complete- 
ness of  its  list  of  names,  appeared  to  have  no  confirmation  from 
the  discoveries  in  hieroglyphics.  Even  its  historical  character, 
though  marked  by  so  conspicuous  a  name  in  the  Egyptian  annals 
as  that  of  Sesostris,  was  hardly  established  ;  for  this  conqueror  is 
known  to  us  from  Diodorus  and  Herodotus,  who  place  him  much 
later  in  the  history.  The  Labyrinth  was  another  work  which 
might  have  rescued  this  dynasty  from  any  doubt  of  its  historical 
existence,  but  its  remains  had  not  been  explored,  so  as  to  ascertain 
the  name  of  its  founder ;  and  Herodotus  had  referred  its  erection 
to  so  late  an  age  as  that  of  the  Dodecarchia.  Several  shields  had 
been  discovered  bearing  the  names  of  kings  which  began  with  the 
letters  A  M  N,  but  the  other  characters  being  unknown,  they  had 
not  been  referred  to  the  Ammenemes  whose  names  recur  so  often 
in  this  dynasty,  but  to  some  unknown  kings.  The  monumental 
evidence  indeed  seemed  to  fix  them  to  a  later  dynasty.  Champol- 
lion  had  ascertained  the  names  of  several  of  the  kings  of  the  18th 

1  Instead  of  Ameres,  Ammenemes  and  Scemiophris,  Eusebius  has  after 
Lamaris  "  his  successors,  years  42." 


134 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


dynasty,  beginnipg  with  Ahraes  or  Amosis,  whose  titular  shield  is 
the  40  th  in  the  iablet  of  Abydos1.  The  17  th  dynasty  consisted 
of  Shepherd  kings,  who  could  not  be  expected  to  be  recorded  on 
an  Egyptian  monument.  The  five  which  preceded  Ahmes,  it  was 
natural  therefore  to  conclude,  must  represent  the  five  kings  of  the 
16th  dynasty,  who  were  Thebans  according  to  Eusebius.  On  the 
obelisks  of  Heliopolis  and  the  Fyoum,  the  latter  of  which  bore 
marks  of  antique  workmanship  in  the  bluntness  of  the  pyramidion 
and  the  unusual  proportions  of  the  height  and  breadth2,  a  name 
had  been  read  Osortasen,  which  from  the  titular  shield  connected 
with  it,  appeared  to  belong  to  a  sovereign  whose  name  stood  first 
in  a  succession  of  four  in  one  of  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan,  and 
the  third  and  fourth  of  these  were  the  same  as  the  35th  and  36th 
of  the  tablet  of  Abydos.  The  names  corresponding  to  the  37th, 
38th  and  39th  shields  were  afterwards  discovered,  and  found  to  be 
another  Osortasen  and  two  beginning  with  the  letters  A  M  N, 
followed  by  the  same  unknown  characters — evidently  therefore 
belonging  to  one  royal  family. 

Major  Felix,  to  whom,  in  conjunction  with  Lord  Prudhoe,  the 
discovery  of  this  succession  is  due,  conjectured  that  these  kings 
were  really  those  of  Manetho's  12th  dynasty,  whose  names  ought 
to  have  been  given  as  those  of  the  17th,  and  made  the  immediate 
predecessors  of  Amosis,  founder  of  the  18th.  Sir  Gardner  Wil- 
kinson3 considered  the  dynasties  between  the  13th  and  18th  to  have 
been  interpolated  or  contemporary  in  Lower  Egypt.  Dr.  Ilincks, 
in  the  transactions  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy4,  had  also  ad- 
vanced the  opinion,  that  the  five  names  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos, 
which  precede  the  18th  dynasty,  constituted  the  12th  dynasty  of 
Manetho,  and  that  the  five  dynasties  between  the  12  th  and  the 

1  Birch,  Gall.  Brit  Mus.  pi.  29. 

a  Bonomi,  in  Trans.  Roy.  Soc  Lit.  8vo.  1,  169. 

'  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  36.  4  Vol.  19,  P.  2,  p.  68. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


135 


18th  were  either  contemporaneous  or  imaginary.  The  names,  read 
as  they  were  by  the  authors  of  these  suppositions,  Osortasen  and 
Ammoneith-Thote  or  Amun-m-gori,  did  not  however  answer  to  the 
names  of  Manetho.  Lepsius  had  been  led,  by  the  circumstance 
that  some  of  the  work  of  the  so-called  Osortasen  at  Thebes  had 
been  surrounded  by  a  construction  of  the  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty1, 
to  conclude  that  a  considerable  period  must  have  intervened  between 
this  dynasty  and  that  to  which  he  belonged,  and  one  of  desolation 
for  Egypt;  that  consequently  he  could  not  have  been  of  the  17th 
dynasty,  but  probably  lived  before  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds. 
The  letters  of  uncertain  sound  in  the  shields  of  the  three  kings  he 
read  het,  and  the  whole  name  becoming  thus  Amun-em-het,  there 
could  be  little  difficulty  in  identifying  it  with  the  Ammenemes  of 
Manetho.  The  authority  for  reading  the  first  letter  in  the  shield 
of  Osortasen  0  was  very  slight ;  Lepsius  considered  it  as  an  S,  and 
made  the  name  Sesortasen.  Thus  he  had  obtained  an  ascending 
series,  going  backward  from  Amosis2 ;  Ammenemes  (IV.),  Amme- 
nemes (III.),  Sesortasen  (III.),  Sesortasen  (II.),  Ammenemes  (II.), 
Sesortasen  (I.),  Ammenemes  (I.),  and  the  first  five  of  these  corre- 
sponded to  the  five  shields  (39-35)  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos,  which 
preceded  that  of  Amosis.  It  seemed  therefore  impossible  to  avoid 
the  conclusion,  that  the  tablet  of  Abydos  passed  over  all  the 
dynasties  intermediate  between  the  12th  and  the  18th,  and  con- 
nected these  immediately  with  each  other.  Into  the  reason  for 
this  omission  we  shall  have  to  inquire  hereafter ;  at  present  it  is 
sufficient  to  say,  that  the  coincidences  between  the  names  of  the 
shields  and  those  of  Manetho's  lists  are  such,  that  we  must  re- 
nounce all  attempt  at  identification  if  we  do  not  admit  them  to 
be  the  same. 

As  the  lists  now  stand,  however,  the  coincidence,  though  strik- 
ing, is  not  complete.    We  have  three  Ammenemes,  but  instead  of 


1  See  voL  i.  p.  146. 


*  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  287,  Germ. 


136 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Sesortasen  we  have  Sesonchosis  and  Sesostris.  The  latter  name 
does  not  differ  so  widely  from  Sesortasen,  but  that  they  may  well 
have  been  the  same,  allowance  being  made  for  the  change  which 
an  Egyptian  name  would  undergo,  in  being  adapted  to  Greek  pro- 
nunciation. In  this  case,  as  the  name  had  become  very  celebrated 
among  the  Greeks,  the  change  to  which  it  had  been  subjected 
would  be  greater  than  ordinary,  and  Manetho,  who  wrote  for  the 
Greeks,  might  adopt  the  form  in  which  they  would  recognise  the 
well-known  conqueror.  The  change  of  Sesonchosis  into  Sesortosis 
would,  perhaps,  be  improbable  if  it  stood  alone,  but  ceases  to  be 
so  amidst  so  many  coincidences.  The  descending  series  thus 
becomes — 

1.  Ammenemes  I.  .  .  .  Last  of  the  11th  dynasty. 

2.  Sesortosis  L  The  Sesonchosis  or  Gesongosis  of  the  MSS.1 

3.  Ammenemes  II. .  .  .  Second  of  the  12th  dynasty. 

4.  \  Sesostris  or  I  H  .  Third  of  the  same  dynasty. 
(  Sesortosis  ) 

Here  we  find  again  a  variance  between  the  monuments  and 
Manetho  ;  for  while  they  furnish  a  third  Ammenemes,  his  text 
reads  Lachares  or  Lamares,  who  is  followed  by  Ameres.  To  this 
Lamares2,  called  Labaris  by  Eusebius3,  the  building  of  the  Laby- 
rinth in  the  Arsinoite  nome  is  attributed,  but  the  unquestionable 
evidence  of  the  Labyrinth  itself  declares  that  Ammenemes  was  its 
founder.  In  Eratosthenes  we  have  Mares  or  Maris,  as  the  thirty- 
fifth  king,  m  a  position  answering  generally  to  the  Lamares  of 
Manetho  ;  and  according  to  Diodorus4,  Marus  was  the  name  which 

1  TESONrOEIE,  the  reading  of  one  MS.,  does  not  differ  very  widely 
from  EEEOPTOEIE.    See  Bunsen,  Urk.  p.  22,  Germ. 

2  The  titular  shield  of  Ammenemes  III.  has  been  read  Ra-n-mat,  and  it 
has  been  supposed  that  this  gave  rise  to  the  name  Lameres,  R  and  L  being 
interchangeable,  but  there  is  no  clear  example  of  the  titular  name  finding 
its  way  into  the  lists. 

*  Chron.  Can.  p.  15,  ed.  Scalig.  *  1,  61. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


137 


some  assigned  to  the  builder  of  the  Labyrinth.  All  these  names, 
Marus,  Maris,  Ammeres,  appear  to  owe  their  origin  to  an  attempt 
to  connect  the  foundation  of  the  Labyrinth  with  the  creation  of 
the  Lake  Mceris.  In  the  form  Labaris  preserved  by  Eusebius,  and 
assigned  as  the  founder  of  the  Labyrinth,  we  have  apparently  the 
origin  of  Lamares,  Lamparis,  Lachares,  and  an  evident  attempt  to 
etymologize  the  Greek  name.  The  Imandes  or  Maindes  of  Strabo1 
on  the  contrary  appears  to  be  a  corruption  of  Ammenemes,  and 
so  also  the  Mendes  of  Diodorus  (u.  s.).  Dismissing  Lamares  and 
Ammeres,  we  may  substitute  in  their  place  the  two  Ammenemes 
of  the  monuments.  Three  reigns,  all  of  eight  years,  succeeding 
each  other,  are  certainly  not  very  probable. 

Continuing  our  list,  therefore,  we  have  after  Sesostris — 

5.  Ammenemes  III.  substituted  for  Labaris  and  Ameres ; 

6.  Ammenemes  IV.,  the  Ammenemes  of  Manetho's  list. 

This  arrangement  is  conformable  to  the  Turin  papyrus,  in  which 
we  have  in  succession  the  titular  shields,  which  are  ascertained  to 
belong  to  Ammenemes  I.,  Sesortasen  I.,  Ammenemes  II.,  Sesor- 
tasen  II.,  Sesortasen  III.,  Ammenemes  III.,  Ammenemes  IV2. 

According  to  Manetho,  Ammenemes  (IV.)  was  succeeded  by 
his  sister  Scemiophris,  reigning  four  years.  No  such  person  has 
been  discovered  in  the  monuments  ;  but  a  king  whose  name  is 
read  Sebeknofre,  is  found  in  the  Turin  papyrus  after  Ammenemes 
IV.,  and  on  the  Karnak  Tablet,  to  whom  a  reign  of  .3  years  10 
months  24  days  is  assigned,  and  it  is  a  probable  conjecture  of 
Lepsius  that  the  queen  Scemiophris  is  no  other  than  this  king, 
supposed  to  be  a  female  from  the  apparently  feminine  termination. 
A  third  Sesortasen  appears  in  the  monuments,  who  is  not  men- 
tioned by  Manetho.  He  succeeded  the  second  Sesortasen.  Amme- 
nemes, the  father  of  Sesonchosis  (Sesortosis  L),  was  probably  the 

1  17,  811.    Epit.  p.  1312,  Almel. 

8  Bunsen,  2,  299.    Lesueur,  316,  317,  who  give  the  lengths  of  the  reigns. 


138 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


same  as  the  Ammenemes  who  closes  the  eleventh  dynasty.  His 
name  is  found  in  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan,  and  on  two  tablets 
of  the  Louvre  it  is  conjoined  with  that  of  Sesortasen  I.1,  whence 
their  joint  reign  has  been  inferred.  From  the  investigations  of 
Lepsius  and  Bunsen  it  also  appears  that  after  the  death  of  Amme- 
nemes I.,  Sesortasen  I.  reigned  alone  for  several  years,  and  that 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  life  Ammenemes  II.  was  associated  with 
him  in  the  government2.  The  reign  of  Sesortasen  III.  was  pro- 
bably included  in  that  of  Sesortasen  II.,  the  father  having  admitted 
the  son  to  share  his  power.  If  the  father  survived  the  son,  and 
consequently  resumed  the  sole  sovereignty,  this  would  account  for 
the  absence  of  the  son's  name  in  Manetho's  list. 

Of  Ammenemes,  whom,  according  to  this  arrangement,  we  are 
to  call  the  Second,  it  is  only  recorded  that  he  was  assassinated  by 
his  own  officers  of  the  bed-chamber3. 

Sesostris  succeeded  to  Ammenemes  II.  The  resemblance  of  the 
names  of  several  Egyptian  sovereigns,  and  the  more  remarkable 
coincidence,  that  three  of  these  appear  to  have  been  conquerors, 
have  produced  a  confusion  in  the  history  of  Sesostris,  which  till 
lately  it  was  impossible  to  clear  up.  Four  kings  of  very  distant 
ages, — Seiochrh,  the  eighth  of  the  second  dynasty  ;  Sesostris,  the 
third  of  the  twelfth  ;  Sethos-Sesoosis-Jiamcses,  of  the  nineteenth  ; 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  page  46. 

2  Bunsen,  B.  2,  p.  293.  A  stele  in  the  Museum  at  Leyden  mentions  the 
43rd  year  of  Sesortasen  I.  as  being  also  the  2nd  of  Ammenemes  II. 

3 1  take  the  word  iiv.v^t  in  its  etymological  sense.  We  have  I  think 
no  evidence  of  the  prevalence  in  Ancient  Egypt  of  the  practice  which  pre- 
vailed in  Assyria  and  is  now  common  throughout  Egypt  and  Western  Asia. 
That  its  introduction  was  attributed  to  Semiramis  is  a  presumption  that  it 
was  not  an  Egyptian  custom  (Her.  3,  92.  Ammian.  Marcell.  14,  6.  Claud 
Eutrop.  1,  339)  Pliny's  Nectabis  (36,  13,  2)  lived  after  the  Persian  con- 
quest. The  use  of  O'HD  (Gen.  xxxvii.  36)  is  no  proof  of  the  custom,  the 
name  being  used  for  a  great  officer,  as  1  Sam.  viii.  15.  Rosellini  (M.  Civ. 
iii  2,  137)  thinks  that  real  evirati  appear  in  the  monuments. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


139 


Sesonchis,  of  the  twenty-second,  have  all  partially  contributed  to 
the  history  of  one  king,  who  has  been  variously  placed,  according 
to  different  hypotheses.  The  gigantic  stature  which  Herodotus 
assigns  to  Sesostris1  is  the  historical  attribute  of  Sesochris,  who 
was  five  cubits  and  four  palms  in  height2.  The  erection  of  monu- 
ments recording  his  own  victories  beyond  the  limits  of  Egypt8 
belongs,  as  far  as  we  know,  only  to  Sesoosis-Rameses,  of  whom 
monumental  tablets  have  been  found  at  Nahr-el-Kelb,  on  the 
Syrian  coast.  The  erection  of  two  obelisks  at  Heliopolis4  again 
belongs  to  Manetho's  Sesostris,  the  Sesortasen  II.  of  the  monu- 
ments, the  Sesoosis  II.  of  Diodorus,  since  the  name  of  this  sove- 
reign appears  on  that  which  still  remains,  and  they  were  usually 
placed  in  pairs.  Another  form  under  which  the  name  of  this 
sovereign  and  warrior  has  come  down  to  us,  is  Sesonchosis,  as  it 
stands  first  in  the  twelfth  dynasty.  Had  it  occurred  only  there, 
we  might  have  acquiesced  in  the  correction  of  Sesortosis  before 
mentioned.  But  the  Scholiast  on  Apollonius  Rhodius  (4,  272) 
says  that  "  Sesonchosis,  king  of  all  Egypt  after  Orus,  son  of  Isis 
and  Osiris,  conquered  all  Asia  and  the  greater  part  of  Europe  ;" 
adding  that  Herodotus  calls  him  Sesostris.  It  is  not  probable  that 
the  same  corruption  of  Sesortosis  into  Sesonchosis  should  have 
taken  place  here,  and  therefore  we  are  compelled  to  believe  that 
this  passage  exhibits  a  further  confusion  of  Sheshonk  or  Sesonchis, 
the  Shishak  of  Scripture,  with  Sesostris.  Sesonchis  was  really  a 
great  foreign  conqueror,  and  inscribed  the  palace  of  Karnak  with 
the  representations  of  numerous  sovereigns  whom  he  had  led 
captive.  To  this  Sesonchosis,  Dicaearchus,  whom  the  Scholiast 
appears  to  follow,  ascribes  the  institution  of  castes,  and  of  the  use 
of  horses  for  riding — a  fresh  illustration  of  the  propensity  to  refer 
the  origin  of  customs  lost  in  immemorial  antiquity  to  some  emi- 
nent name.    How  little  chronology  was  regarded  in  these  matters 

1  2,  106.    Diod.  1,  55.  2  See  page  104  of  this  volume. 

•  Herod.  2,  102.    Diod.  1,  55.  4  Diod.  1,  59. 


140 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


is  evident  from  the  circumstance,  that  Dicsearchus  makes  this 
Sesonchosis  to  be  the  successor  of  Orus,  the  last  of  the  gods,  con- 
founding him  with  the  Menes  of  the  common  story.  It  would  be 
lost  labor  to  endeavor  to  reconcile  such  contradictions,  and  build 
them  up  into  a  chronological  system. 

The  account  which  is  given  by  Africanus  of  the  conquests  of 
Sesostris  may  seem  to  leave  no  doubt  that  he  is  really  the  hero  of 
the  Grecian  story.  We  have  already  seen,  however,  that  Africanus 
interposes  remarks  of  his  own  among  the  names  of  the  Manetho- 
nian  lists ;  and  what  is  said  of  Sesostris  has  such  a  close  verbal 
resemblance  to  Diodorus,  that  as  Africanus  does  not  appear  ever 
to  have  seen  the  work  of  Manetho,  it  is  probable  that  he  has  copied 
this  notice  from  Diodorus1. 

Since,  therefore,  the  traditions  of  the  Greeks  respecting  Sesostris 
either  belong  to  the  historical  Rameses,  or  are  wholly  vague,  we 
cannot  venture  to  attribute  to  the  Sesortasens  of  the  monuments 
anything  which  is  recorded  of  Sesostris2.  The  monuments  them- 
selves, however,  attest  the  power  of  the  twelfth  dynasty.  Rosellini 
dug  up  near  the  Second  Cataract  a  stele,  now  preserved  in  llie 
Florentine  Museum3 ;  it  stood  in  an  edifice  raised  by  Rameses  L, 
on  the  spot  where  Sesortasen  I.  had  placed  a  memorial  of  his  own 
victories.  He  is  represented  upon  it  standing  in  the  presence  of  a 
hawk-headed  deity,  named  Mandoo,  who  holds  in  his  hand  a  cord 
to  which  are  attached  shields  whose  edge  represents  the  battle- 

1  The  error  with  regard  to  the  significance  of  the  emblems  which  he  is 
said  to  have  inscribed  on  his  stelce  is  much  more  likely  to  have  originated 
with  the  Greeks  or  their  half-learned  interpreters  than  with  a  high  priest. 
Such  emblems  do  occur  among  the  hieroglyphics,  but  in  a  widely  different 
sense  from  that  attributed  to  them  by  Herodotus  and  Diodorus. 

9  Bunsen  (B.  2,  p.  309,  Germ.)  considers  Sesortasen  II.  as  the  great  Sesos- 
tris, and  supposes  him  to  have  conquered  Ethiopia  as  far  as  the  shores  of 
the  Rod  Sep.,  and  crossed  into  Arabia,  and  thence  to  the  continent  of  Asia 
(Strabo,  16,  p.  769). 

*  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  38.    Mon.  Reali,  tav.  xxv.  4. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


141 


ments  of  a  town,  and  which  are  surmounted  by  the  upper  half  of 
the  human  figure,  with  the  hands  bound  behind.  This  is  the  way 
in  which,  on  the  monuments  of  Egyptian  conquerors,  their  van- 
quished enemies  are  usually  exhibited1.  The  nations  thus  led  cap- 
tive appear  from  the  absence  of  beard  to  be  African,  though  they 
exhibit  nothing  of  the  negro  physiognomy.  Five  are  still  extant 
on  the  monument,  and  when  perfect  it  must  have  exhibited  several 
others.  The  inscription  on  the  base  has  not  been  fully  made  out, 
but  it  appears  to  record  a  sacrifice  or  offering  to  Mnevis,  the  white 
bull  of  Heliopolis.  At  Thebes  Rosellini  found  a  fragment  of  a 
statue  of  Sesortasen  L,  which  from  the  manner  of  its  insertion 
among  later  constructions,  appeared  to  have  been  preserved  as  a 
relic  of  some  building  raised  by  him,  and  afterwards  destroyed  in 
the  devastations  of  the  Shepherds.  The  tombs  of  Benihassan  are 
memorials  of  this  dynasty,  and  in  one  of  them,  where  a  chief  of  the 
name  of  Ammenemes  was  buried,  is  an  inscription  to  this  king, 
who  is  there  called  "  ruler  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt2."  The  obe- 
lisk of  Heliopolis  gives  him  the  same  title,  along  with  others  of  a 
more  mystical  kind,  but  records  no  historical  fact.  That  of  the 
Fyoum  is  equally  destitute  of  information,  but  adds  the  title 
"  beloved  by  Ptah."  Several  funeral  tablets  have  been  found  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Memphis  and  of  Abydos,  dedicated  to  per- 
sons who  held  office  under  him ;  they  bear  various  dates,  from  the 
ninth  year  of  his  reign  to  the  forty-fourth3.  Manetho  assigns 
forty-six  as  the  duration  of  the  reign  of  his  Sesonchosis,  whom  we 
have  supposed  to  represent  Sesortosis  L  The  occurrence  of  his 
name  at  the  copper-mines  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai4  shows  that  this 
region  still  remained  in  the  possession  of  Egypt. 

1  Rosellini  reads  the  names  Kas  or  Kos  (which  mny  be  the  Cush  of 
Scripture),  Shiameik,  Soa  and  Shiat,  with  two  not  perfectly  legible- 
a  Rosel-ini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  30. 

3  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  37. 

4  Wilkinson.  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  406 


142 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


There  is  in  the  grottoes  of  Benihassan  a  remarkable  picture  of 
the  age  of  Sesortasen  II.  or  Sesostris1.  The  name  of  the  occupant 
of  the  tomb  has  been  read  Nevopth ;  and  his  son,  who  like  the 
father  was  of  the  military  caste,  is  represented  as  standing  to 
receive  a  procession  of  foreigners.  They  are  preceded  by  a  royal 
scribe,  who  holds  out  a  scroll,  on  which  is  written  the  sixth  year  of 
Sesortasen  II.,  and  it  is  declared  that  the  strangers  having  been 
vanquished,  they  are  brought  hither  to  the  number  of  thirty-seven. 
Such  at  least  appears  to  be  the  general  sense  of  the  inscription,  but 
the  interpretation  of  the  characters  is  by  no  means  certain.  Instead 
of  thirty-seven,  only  twelve  adults  and  three  children  actually 
appear  in  the  procession,  and  none  of  them  are  bound.  To  the 
royal  scribe  another  Egyptian  succeeds,  and  is  followed  by  the  king 
of  the  strangers,  who  leads  an  ibex  by  the  horn  and  bows  reveren- 
tially. He  is  uncovered,  and  wears  a  tunic  of  bright  colors  and  an 
elaborate  pattern ;  in  his  hand  he  carries  a  curved  starT  not  unlike 
that  which  is  seen  in  the  hand  of  Osiris.  Another  stranger  fol- 
lows, of  humbler  rank,  leading  an  ibex.  Four  men,  armed  with  a 
kind  of  club  or  bow  and  spear,  precede  an  ass,  carrying  two  child- 
ren in  a  pannier,  along  with  an  instrument  whose  use  it  is  not  easy 
to  define,  but  which  appears  to  represent  some  kind  of  shield.  A 
boy  on  foot  armed  with  a  lance  is  followed  by  four  females,  and 
these  by  another  ass  with  panniers.  The  whole  procession  is 
closed  by  two  men,  one  of  whom  carries  a  lyre  and  a  plectrum,  the 
other  a  bow  and  a  club.  The  inscription  contains  apparently  the 
name  of  the  strangers,  but  it  has  not  been  satisfactorily  made  out. 
Their  lighter  color  and  their  aquiline  noses  show  that  they  are 
neither  Egyptians  nor  natives  of  a  more  southern  country  than 
Egypt.  As  they  bring  no  gift  but  the  ibex,  it  is  probable  they 
belong  to  a  pastoral  tribe3,  Arabian  or  Palestinian.    They  have 

2See  vol  1,  pp.  40,  41.  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1.  48.  M.  R.  Tav 
xxvi.-xxviii. 

a  Compare  Isaiah  lx.  7.    "  The  rams  of  Nebaioth  shall  minister  unto  thee." 


THE  TWELFTH  DFNASTY. 


143 


been  thought  to  represent  the  migration  of  Jacob  and  his  family, 
and  certainly  the  bringing  of  children  in  panniers  looks  like  the 
removal  of  a  family,  unless  we  suppose  them  to  be  hostages.  But 
the  figure  of  a  prisoner  is  inconsistent  with  this  idea ;  and  the 
most  probable  supposition  is,  that  the  picture  represents  the  bring- 
ing of  tribute,  by  one  of  the  nations  bordering  on  the  Asiatic  fron- 
tier of  Egypt,  whom  Sesortasen  had  reduced1.  Champollion 
believed  them  to  be  Greeks,  induced  partly  by  their  garments,  on 
which  is  seen  the  pattern  which  we  call  Greek,  and  find  on  the  old 
fictile  vases.  But  nothing  else  recommends  this  conjecture,  and 
when  we  consider  the  close  connexion  of  Greek  with  Phoenician 
art,  such  a  coincidence  will  not  appear  surprising. 

These  grottoes  of  Benihassan  are  the  best  record  of  the  state 
of  manners  and  art  in  the  flourishing  period  of  the  12th  dynasty, 
when  the  prosperity  of  Egypt  was  about  to  receive  a  check  by  the 
invasion  of  the  Shepherds.  We  have  already  described  the  archi- 
tecture of  this  age,  so  closely  resembling  the  Doric2.  The  pictures 
of  Egyptian  life  testify  to  a  state  of  civilization,  in  which  both  the 
elegant  and  the  useful  arts  had  been  carried  to  a  high  degree  of 
perfection.  It  may  appear  singular  that  as  this  dynasty  as  well 
as  the  preceding  is  called  Diospolitan,  scarcely  any  trace  of  them 
should  be  found  at  Thebes.  The  fragment  of  the  statue  of  Sesor- 
tasen which  has  been  preserved,  however,  shows  that  it  was 
adorned  by  them. 

Whether  Sesortasen  were  the  first  who  made  conquests  in 
Nubia  depends  on  the  place  which  we  allot  to  the  kings  who  bear 
the  names  of  Sebekatep,  or  Sebekotph,  and  Nefruatep3,  and  are 
found  in  the  Tablet  of  Karnak  and  the  Turin  Papyrus.    If  they 

1  Mr.  Osburn  (Egypt  and  her  Testimony  to  the  Truth  of  the  Bible,  pp.  38, 
39)  reads  the  namet  Jebusites. 
3  Vol.  i.  pp.  213,  214. 

*  Five  Sebekateps  and  two  Nefruateps  may  be  distinguished  in  the  monu- 
ments. 


144 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


belong  to  the  eleventh  dynasty,  which  was  Theban,  Nubian  con- 
quest would  seem  to  have  begun  with  them,  as  the  name  of  Sebe- 
katep  occurs  at  Semne,  in  the  inscriptions  which  Lepsius  supposes 
to  record  the  rise  of  the  Nile,  along  with  that  of  Ammenemes1. 
Their  place  however  is  doubtful,  and  they  have  been  reckoned 
with  the  kings  of  the  Middle  Monarchy2.  Three  kings  of  the 
name  of  Nantef  have  also  been  found,  who  from  their  place  in  the 
Tablet  of  Karnak3  and  from  their  sepulture  at  Qoorneh  appear  to 
have  belonged  to  a  Theban  dynasty,  probably  the  11th.  Sesor- 
tasen  I.  certainly  carried  his  arms  into  Nubia;  under  the  18th 
dynasty  when  the  monarchy  revived  in  greater  splendor  than  ever, 
it  seems  to  have  been  completely  incorporated  with  Egypt,  and 
the  banks  of  the  Nile  were  covered  with  temples  in  which  their 
titles  are  recorded.  These  facts  conclude  very  strongly  against 
the  opinion  that  civilization  descended,  either  with  conquest  or  the 
gradual  spread  of  population,  along  the  Nile  from  Meroe  and 
Nubia  to  Egypt.  It  has  been  supported  by  the  claims  of  the 
Theban  priests  which  Diodorus  admitted,  by  the  unfounded  opinion 
of  the  superior  antiquity  of  the  remains  of  Meroe,  and  perhaps  by 
the  fame  of  the  poetical  Ethiopians  ;  but  is  contradicted  by  the 
monuments,  which  show  us  that  Lower  and  Middle  Egypt  were 
the  seats  of  powerful  governments  before  Thebes  had  attained  to 
any  renown,  and  that  Nubia  had  no  civilization  before  her  conquest 
by  Egypt,  which  began  with  the  11th  or  12th  dynasty. 

The  age  of  the  Labyrinth  and  the  name  of  the  sovereign  by 
whom  it  was  built  have  been  most  variously  stated  by  the  ancient 
writers,  and  nothing  but  the  evidence  of  the  ruins  themselves  has 
enabled  us  to  assign  with  certainty  Ammenemes  as  its  founder. 
Herodotus,  we  have  seen,  attributes  the  building  to  the  twelve 

Boeckh,  Manetho  und  die  Hnndssternperiode,  p.  627,  note  2. 
Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  Mittleres  Reich,  pi.  iv. 
'  See  Hierogl.  of  the  Egyptian  Society,  pi.  96.    Burch  in  Gliddon's  Egyp- 
tian Archaeology,  p.  80. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


145 


kings  or  chiefs  who  composed  the  Dodecarchia ;  not  only  mating 
no  mention  of  any  other,  but  expressiy  calling  them  "  the  original 
founders1."  This  is  in  itself  very  improbable,  if  we  consider  how 
vast  was  the  work,  surpassing,  as  Herodotus  says,  not  only  all  the 
works  of  Grecian  architecture,  but  the  Pyramids  themselves.  It 
is  also  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that,  though  sfter  the 
Egyptian  fashion  each  of  these  chiefs  may  have  prepared  a  tomb 
for  himself  during  his  lifetime,  they  should  have  been  deposited 
there  after  Psammitichus  had  dethroned  them.  Probably  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  number  of  the  principal  halls  was  twelve,  led 
to  their  erection  being  attributed  to  these  twelve  kings.  Diodorus 
gives  a  different  account.  He  describes,  as  Herodotus  does,  the 
twelve  kings  as  designing  to  leave  a  common  memorial  of  them- 
selves in  the  place  which  they  prepared  with  all  imaginable  art  for 
this  purpose  ;  and  he  fixes  very  precisely  on  the  spot  on  which  the 
Labyrinth  actually  stood — the  entrance  of  the  Canal  into  the  Lake 
of  Mceris2;  but  he  does  not  call  it  the  Labyrinth.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  says3,  that  the  Labyrinth  was  built  by  a  much  earlier  king, 
who  lived  long  before  the  building  of  the  Pyramids,  by  some 
called  Mendes,  by  others  Marrus.  Even  here,  however,  we  may 
trace  some  analogy  to  the  account  of  Herodotus  ;  Mendes  or 
Marrus  was  make  king  immediately  after  the  termination  of  the 
Ethiopian  invasion  under  Actisanes  ;  and  in  Herodotus,  the  retreat 
of  the  Ethiopians  is  followed  by  an  interregnum  of  the  priest 
Sethos,  and  then  by  the  builders  of  the  Labyrinth. 

Strabo  describes  the  Labyrinth  as  standing  upon  a  plateau, 
about  thirty  or  forty  stadia  from  the  entrance  of  the  canal,  and  as 
consisting  of  the  same  number  of  palaces  as  the  nomes  of  Egypt 

1  2,  148.  ^ajjitvoi  avr69i  eivai  rCsv  tz  ap-^rjv  tov  \a;3vptv0ov  tivtov  oixoSo- 
pT)crantvo>v  Patji'Xiuiv  Ka\  rwv  Uprov  KpoKoSeiXuv.  These  kings  can  be  no  other 
than  those  whom  he  has  before  mentioned — the  Dodecarchs,  who  he  says 
determined  to  leave  the  Labyrinth  as  a  memorial  of  themselves. 

2  1,  66.  8  1,  61. 

VOL.  n.  1 


146 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


formerly  amounted  to1.  What  this  number  was  he  does  not 
specify,  but  from  Herodotus  and  Pomponius  Mela  we  learn  that  it 
was  twelve2.  The  establishment  of  an  oligarchy  of  twelve,  during 
the  temporary  suspension  of  monarchy,  points  to  such  a  territorial 
division  previously  existing,  and  probably  corresponding  to  that  of 
the  temples  of  the  gods  of  the  second  order.  One  stadium  from  x 
the  Labyrinth  stood  a  pyramid,  400  feet  square  at  the  base  and 
of  equal  altitude,  in  which,  says  Strabo,  a  king  named  Imandes 
(Maindes)  lies  buried.  This  is  the  pyramid  of  Howara,  which 
stands  on  a  desert  plain  between  the  Bahr  Jusuf  and  the  ravine 
called  Bahr-be-la-ma,  which  runs  down  to  the  north-eastern  end 
of  the  Lake  of  Kerun.  Its  present  height  is  about  106  feet,  and 
its  base  3003.  It  is  constructed  of  crude  bricks,  mixed  with  straw, 
and  has  been  originally  cased  with  stone.  The  sepulchral  chamber 
has  been  explored  by  Lepsius,  and  the  discovery  of  the  name  of 
Ammenemes  III.  has  removed  all  doubt  respecting  the  time  and 
purpose  of  its  erection.  He  is  the  same  sovereign  whose  shield 
occurs  everywhere  in  the  ruins  of  the  Labyrinth. 

These  varying  accounts  may  be  partly  reconciled  by  the  obser- 
vation that  the  pyramid  and  the  labyrinth  are  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  having  a  common  destination,  and  sometimes  discriminated. 
Strabo  discriminates  them  ;  the  labyrinth  was  according  to  him  a 
collection  of  palaces4,  the  pyramid  a  place  of  sepulture.  Herodo- 
tus, on  the  authority  of  the  inhabitants,  speaks  of  the  kings  and 
sacred  crocodiles  as  being  interred  in  the  subterranean  chambers 
of  the  labyrinth  ;  Manetho  (or  Africanus)  says  Lamares  built  the 
Labyrinth  as  a  sepulchre  for  himself ;  and  Pliny,  following  Lyceas, 

1  B.  16,  p.  181,  811. 

a  Psammetichi  opus  Labyrinthus  domos  ter  mille  et  regias  duodeeim 
amplexus.    (Pomp.  Mela,  1,  9,  65.) 

•  Perring  on  the  Pyr.  3,  83. 

*  The  Memnoneion  of  Abydos,  which  was  a  palace,  was  (Strabo,  11,  813) 
a  building  in  the  style  of  the  Labyrinth,  only  leas  complex. 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


147 


calls  it  the  sepulchre  of  Moeris.  It  appears  quite  contrary  to  Egyp- 
tian usages  that  the  same  building  should  be  used  as  a  palace  and 
a  cemetery.  Notwithstanding  therefore  the  tradition  of  the  neigh- 
borhood recorded  by  Herodotus,  the  fact  of  the  Labyrinth  being 
at  all  a  place  of  royal  sepulture  is  questionable.  It  is  however  not 
unlikely  that  the  embalmed  crocodiles  may  have  been  deposited 
in  the  vaults.  The  name  Petesuchis,  which  Pliny  gives  to  the 
king  who  founded  the  Labyrinth  4600  years  before  his  time1,  evi- 
dently alludes  to  this  destination  of  the  building ;  for  Suchos  was 
the  tame  crocodile  of  the  Arsinoite  nome,  and  Pet  or  Pet-n  occurs 
frequently  in  similar  combinations2.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
Labyrinth  was  all  built  by  a  single  sovereign  ;  Diodorus3  speaks  of 
its  being  left  unfinished  by  its  founders,  and  we  have  seen  reason  to 
conclude  that  the  Pyramids,  though  attributed  by  the  ancients  to 
a  single  reign,  were  not  begun  and  concluded  by  the  same  person4. 

The  name  Labyrinth  appears  to  be  of  Greek  origin,  and  we  do 
not  know  what  word  corresponded  to  it  in  the  ancient  Egyptian. 
It  originally  denoted  a  complicated  system  of  passages  and  gal- 
leries6, such  as  are  found  in  mines,  catacombs  and  internal  quarries. 
As  they  were  usually  of  unknown  age,  mythical  personages  were 
assigned  as  their  authors.  Those  at  Nauplia  were  attributed  to 
the  Cyclops6,  that  at  Cnossus  to  Daedalus.  The  last-mentioned  is 
usually  supposed  to  have  been  a  building,  like  the  Egyptian  ;  but 
no  one  speaks,  as  an  eye-witness  of  it ;  and  the  story  probably 
originated  from  the  existence  of  a  real  labyrinth,  excavated  in 
times  of  unknown  antiquity  at  Gortys  in  Crete7.    The  idea  of  per- 

1  Cod.  Bamb.Plin.  36,  19  (13). 

*  See  vol.  i.  p.  323,  note  \  s  1,  66. 

4  No  name  except  that  of  Ammenemes  III.  appears  to  have  been  dis- 
covered by  the  Prussian  Expedition,  but  only  the  foundations  are  left. 

'  Such  a  gallery  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Aavpa,  from  which,  pronounced 
AdFpa,  Aa(Jpa,  \a0vpivdus  would  be  formed  by  a  regular  analogy.  ("Words- 
worth, Athens  and  Attica,  p.  209.    Hoeckh's  Creta,  vol.  1,  p.  62.) 

•  Strabo,  8,  p.  369.  7  Walpole's  Travels,  2,  402. 


148 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


plexity  which  we  associate  with  the  name,  and  which  the  mythe 
represents  as  the  designed  end  of  the  construction,  was  the  neces- 
sary consequence,  in  the  one  case  of  the  multitude  of  intersecting 
passages,  in  the  other  of  the  endless  succession  of  apartments, 
repeating  each  other.  Herodotus  describes  the  Labyrinth  of  Egypt 
as  the  palace  of  Versailles  might  be  described  by  one  who  had 
been  led  through  it  by  a  guide,  and  had  been  at  once  astonished 
and  bewildered  by  what  he  had  seen.  We  can  distinguish,  how- 
ever, in  his  description,  hypostyle  halls,  which  were  roofed  by 
single  blocks  of  stone1,  rilling  the  whole  space  of  the  intercolumnia- 
tions,  closed  apartments  adjoining  to  these,  and  porticoes  leading 
to  other  roofed  apartments.  The  multitude  and  similarity  of  these 
buildings  might  well  make  it  impracticable  for  a  stranger  to  find 
his  way  through  them,  especially  as  the  majority  of  them  had  no 
light2,  llerodotus  says  they  were  in  all  3000,  1500  above  ground 
and  an  equal  number  below.  The  exactness  of  this  statement 
rests  of  course  on  the  fidelity  of  his  guides,  who  delight  in  large  and 
round  numbers,  which  are  rendered  more  doubtful  by  the  circum- 
stance that  the  building  was  only  one  story  high  above  the  ground. 
The  ruins  which  have  been  explored  by  the  Prussian  Expedition, 
show  that  the  whole  was  a  rectangle  of  800  feet  by  500.  Pliny 
speaks  of  this  as  well  as  the  other  Labyrinths  as  being  arched, 
fornicibus  tecti ;  but  there  is  no  trace  of  the  use  of  the  arch  here 
or  in  any  other  building  of  this  age.  It  appears  to  have  been 
chiefly  built  of  a  hard  white  limestone,  which  has  been  mistaken 
for  Parian  marble8 ;  but  the  fragments  of  granite  which  lie  scat- 
tered about  show  that  this  more  costly  material  had  also  been  used 
for  columns,  shrines  and  statues.    The  white  limestone  was  proba- 

1  Strabo,  p.  811. 

3  Pliny,  N.  H.  36,  19  (13).    Majore  in  parte  transitus  est  per  tenebras. 

3  Plin.  36,  19,  (13)  2.  ^Egyptius  labyrinthus  (quod  miror  equidem) 
introitu  lapide  e  Pario,  columnis  reliquis  e  Syenite,  molibus  compositis, 
quas  diseolvere  ne  sajoula  quidem  possint 


THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY. 


149 


bly  brought  from  the  Gebel-el-Mokattam,  where  an  inscription 
records  the  working  of  a  quarry  of  hard  white  stone,  in  the  reign 
of  a  sovereign  of  the  name  of  Ammenemes,  whose  precise  place  in 
the  series  cannot  be  ascertained,  as  his  distinctive  title  does  not 
accompany  his  phonetic  name1. 

Manetho,  according  to  Africanus,  reckoned  2300  years  from 
Menes  to  Ammenemes  I.  (see  p.  129).  If  to  this  we  add  160 
years  for  the  12th  dynasty,  we  have  2460  years  for  the  duration 
of  the  Old  Monarchy.  That  there  is  some  great  error  of  excess  in 
these  numbers  cannot  be  doubted,  but  they  can  be  corrected  only 
by  unauthorised  conjecture.  Bunsen,  taking  Eratosthenes  for  his 
standard,  reduces  the  Old  Monarchy  to  1076  years.  The  question 
can  be  settled  in  no  other  way  than  by  the  discovery  of  some  evi- 
dence to  show  whether  any  and  which  of  the  dynasties  of  Mane- 
tho were  contemporaneous. 

1  The  cornice  of  the  stele  bears  the  date  "48rd  year,"  and  the  builder  of 
the  Labyrinth  reigned  only  twelve.  But  this  date  is  no  part  of  the  inscrip- 
tion, nor  does  it  express  the  reign  of  Ammenemes.  (Birch  in  Vyse,  Pyra- 
mids, 3,  94.    Tourah  Quarries.  Tablet  No.  1.) 


BOOK  II. 


THE  MIDDLE  MONARCHY. 

Thirteenth  Dynasty. 

Tears. 

Sixty  Diospolitan  Kings,  who  reigned   453 

Fourteenth  Dynasty. 
Seventy-sex  Xoite  Kings,  who  reigned  184 

Fifteenth  Dynasty. — Of  Shepherds. 

Six  Foreign  Phcenician  Kings,  who  also  took  Memphis.  They  like- 
wise founded  a  city  in  the  Sethroite  nome,  advancing  from  which 
they  reduced  the  Egyptians  into  subjection.    The  first  of  these 

who  reigned  was  Saites  19 

From  him  the  Saitic  nome  was  called. 

2.  Bnon  44 

3.  Pachnan  61 

4  Staan  50 

6.  Archles  49 

6.  Athobis  61 

284 

Sixteenth  Dynasty. 
Thirty  other  Shepherd  Kings,  reigned  618 

Seventeenth  Dynasty. 

Forty-three  other  Shepherd  Kings,  and  Forty-three  Theban  Dios- 
polites.    Together  the  Shepherds  and  Thebans  reigned  ....  151 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY.  151 

Eusebius  gives  these  dynasties  with  very  important  variations. 


Thirteenth  Dynasty. 

Years. 


Sixty  Diospolitan  Kings,  reigned  453 

Fourteenth  Dynasty. 

Seventy-six  Xoite  Kings,  reigned  184 

[484  in  another  copy.] 
Ann.  434. 

Fifteenth  Dynasty. 
Diostolitan  Kings,  reigned  250 

Sixteenth  Dynasty. 
Five  Theban  Kings,  reigned  190 

Seventeenth  Dynasty. 

(Four)  Foreign  Phoenician  Shepherd  Kings1  (brothers),  who  also  took 
Memphis. 

First,  Saites  reigned  '  19 

From  him  the  nome  Satis  was  called.  They  founded  a  city  in 
the  Sethroite  nome,  advancing  from  which  they  subdued 
Egypt 

2.  Bnon  40 

3.  Aphophis  14 

4.  After  him  Archles  30 

103 


No  name  is  preserved  by  Africanus  or  Syncellus  from  the  thir- 

1  For  Woiftiiti  ri<ray  dic^fol  (pounces  we  should  probably  read  HE  AN  A  (four) 
$OINIKEL.  Syncellus  complains  of  the  arbitrary  manner  in  which 
Eusebius  had  transposed  the  15th  Dynasty  into  the  17th  ;  his  motive  was 
to  adapt  the  Egyptian  to  the  assumed  Biblical  chronology.  (P.  62,  115 
Dind) 


152 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


teentli  and  iburteenth  dynasty ;  consequently  we  are  deprived  of 
the  means  of  comparing  them  with  the  monuments.  Xois  was  a 
town  of  considerable  size  in  Lower  Egypt,  lying  near  the  centre  of 
the  Delta,  in  an  island  formed  by  the  Sebennytic  and  Phatnitic 
branches  of  the  Nile1. 

The  establishment  of  the  Shepherd  Kings  at  Memphis,  which  is 
so  briefly  noticed  in  the  extracts  by  Africanus,  is  fortunately  related 
at  great  length  by  Josephus  in  a  passage  quoted  by  him  from 
Manetho.  Apion  the  Grammarian,  one  of  those  vain  pedants 
whom  the  school  of  Alexandria  produced  in  such  abundance2,  had 
attacked  the  Jews,  who  were  very  odious  to  the  Egyptians,  aud 
especially  to  the  Alexandrians,  in  a  work  on  the  Jewish  history,  in 
which  he  gave  a  very  reproachful  account  of  the  origin  of  their 
nation.  To  this  work  Josephus  replied.  In  a  remarkable  Intro- 
duction he  shows  how  late  was  the  origin  of  Greek  letters  and  his- 
tory, compared  with  the  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  and  Phoenician,  and 
opposes  to  the  unfavorable  accounts  of  the  Grasco-Egyptian  Apion, 
what  he  considers  to  be  the  honorable  testimony  to  the  Jewish 
people,  which  Manetho  had  delivered  from  the  Egyptian  records. 
Having  described  Manetho  as  a  man  well  skilled  in  Grecian  learn- 
ing, and  who  had  derived  his  materials,  according  to  his  own 
declaration,  from  the  sacred  records  of  his  country,  he  thus  pro- 
ceeds with  his  quotation  from  the  second  book  of  his  '  Egyptiaca' 
(Cont.  Apion.  1,  14)  : — 

"  We  had  once  a  king  called  Timasos,  under  whom,  from  some 
cause  unknown  to  me,  the  Deity  was  unfavorable  to  us,  and  there 

1  Champollion,  JEgypte  sous  les  Fharaons,  2,  p.  214,  thinks  its  site  was  fit 
Sakha,  which  is  the  Arabic  equivnlent  of  the  Coptic  Xeos  and  the  old  Egyp- 
tian Skhoon.  The  road  from  Rosetta  to  Cairo  across  the  Delta  passes 
through  it.  (Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.    Strabo,  11,  p.  802.) 

2  "  Apion  Grammaticus,  quem  Tiberius  Csesar  cymbalum  mundi  voeabat, 
quum  publicse  famae  tympanum,  potius  videri  posset,  immortalitate  donari  a 
se  scripsit,  ad  quos  aliqua  componebat."    ^Plin.  Praef.  H.  N.) 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


153 


came  unexpectedly  from  the  eastern  parts  a  race  of  men  of  obscure 
extraction,  who  confidently  invaded  the  country  and  easily  got 
possession  of  it  by  force,  without  a  battle.  Having  subdued  those 
who  commanded  in  it,  they  proceeded  savagely  to  burn  the  cities, 
and  razed  the  temples  of  the  gods,  inhumanly  treating  all  the 
natives,  murdering  some  of  them  and  carrying  the  wives  and 
children  of  others  into  slavery.  In  the  end  they  also  established 
one  of  themselves  as  a  king  whose  name  was  Salatu  ;  and  he 
took  up  his  abode  in  Memphis,  exacting  tribute  from  both  the 
Upper  and  the  Lower  Country,  and  leaving  garrisons  in  the 
most  suitable  places.  He  especially  strengthened  the  parts 
towards  the  East,  foreseeing  that  on  the  part  of  the  Assyrians, 
who  were  then  powerful,  there  would  be  a  desire  to  invade  then 
kingdom.  Finding,  therefore,  in  the  Sethroite1  nome  a  city  very 
conveniently  placed,  lying  eastward  of  the  Bubastic  river,  and 
called  from  some  old  religious  doctrine2  Auaris  [or  Abaris],  he 
built  it  up  and  made  it  very  strong  with  walls,  settling  there  also 
a  great  number  of  heavy-armed  soldiers,  to  the  amount  of  240,000 
men  for  a  guard.  Hither  he  used  to  come  in  the  summer  season, 
partly  to  distribute  the  rations  of  corn  and  pay  the  troops3,  partly 
to  exercise  them  carefully  by  musterings  and  reviews,  in  order  to 
inspire  fear  into  foreign  nations.  He  died  after  a  reign  of  19 
years.  After  him  another  king  called  Bnon  reigned  44  years ; 
after  him  another,  Apachnas,  36  years  and  7  months ;  then 
Apophis  61  years,  and  Jannas  50  years  and  1  month.  Last  of  all 
Asses  49  years  and  2  months.  And  these  six  were  their  first 
rulers,  always  carrying  on  war  and  desiring  rather  to  extirpate  the 
Egyptians.  Their  whole  nation  was  called  Hyksos,  that  is  Shep- 
herd Kings  ;  for  Hyk  in  the  sacred  language  denotes  King,  and 

1  Syneellus  has  preserved  the  true  reading ;  the  MSS.  and  Sehol.  Plat. 
Tinweus  read  Saitp. 

a  'A~o  iisos  do^aias  Bco'Xoyiai, 

8  HirufjiST pdi>  KOI  [iioQotpufiiav  7rap£^d/i£fOS. 

1* 


154 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Sos  is  a  Shepherd  in  the  common  dialect,  and  hence  by  composi- 
tion Hyksos.  But  in  another  copy  it  is  said,  that  not  Shepherd 
Kings  but  Captive  Shepherds  are  designated  by  the  word  Hyk  ; 
for  that  on  the  contrary,  Hyk  or  Hak  with  the  aspirate  distinctly 
means  Captives  ;  and  this  appears  to  me  more  credible,  and 
accordant  with  ancient  history.  The  before-named  kings,  he  says, 
and  their  descendants,  were  masters  of  Egypt  for  511  years. 

"  After  this  he  says  that  a  revolt  of  the  kings  of  the  Thebaid  and 
the  rest  of  Egypt  took  place  against  the  Shepherds,  and  a  great 
and  prolonged  war  was  carried  on  with  them.  Under  a  king  whose 
name  was  Misphragmuthosis,  he  says  that  the  Shepherds  were 
expelled  by  him  from  the  rest  of  Egypt  after  a  defeat,  and  shut  up 
in  a  place  having  a  circuit  of  10,000  arutae.  This  place  was  called 
Auaris.  Manetho  says  that  the  Shepherds  surrounded  it  entirely 
with  a  large  and  strong  wall,  in  order  that  they  might  have  a 
secure  deposit  for  all  their  possessions  and  all  their  plunder. 
Thuthmosis,  the  son  of  Misphragmuthosis,  endeavored  to  take 
the  place  by  siege,  attacking  the  walls  with  480,000  men. 
Despairing  of  taking  it  by  siege,  he  made  a  treaty  with  them  that 
they  should  leave  Egypt  and  withdraw,  without  injury,  whitherso- 
ever they  pleased  ;  and  in  virtue  of  this  agreement  they  withdrew 
from  Egypt  with  all  their  families  and  possessions  to  the  number 
of  not  fewer  than  240,000,  and  traversed  the  desert  into  Syria. 
Fearing  the  power  of  the  Assyrians,  who  were  at  that  time  masters 
of  Asia,  they  built  a  city  in  that  which  is  now  called  Judaea,  which 
should  suffice  for  so  many  myriads  of  men,  and  called  it  Jeru- 
salem. 

"  And  in  a  certain  other  book  of  his  Egyptiaca,  Manetho  says 
that  this  nation  who  are  called  Shepherds  are  described  as  Captives 
in  their  sacred  books.  And  he  says  rightly  ;  for  the  keeping  of 
sheep  was  the  ancient  habit  of  our  forefathers,  and  they  were  not 
unnaturally  described  as  Captives  by  the  Egyptians,  since  our  fore- 
father Joseph  declares  himself  to  the  king  of  the  Egyptians  to  be 


THIRTEENTH  TO  SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


155 


a  captive,  and  afterwards  at  the  command  of  the  king  sent  for  his 
brethren  into  Egypt.  Into  these  things,  however,  I  will  inquire 
hereafter  more  accurately." 

This  is  the  account  which  Josephus  gives  from  Manetho  of  the 
invasion,  reign  and  expulsion  of  the  Shepherd  kings.  If  we  except 
some  evident  exaggerations  of  numbers,  such  as  the  host  of  480,000 
men  besieging  a  city  or  fortified  camp  containing  240,000,  there 
is  nothing  in  it  which  is  not  quite  credible  and  natural.  The 
nomadic  nations  have  always  envied  the  wealth  and  luxury  which 
agriculture,  commerce  and  art  have  procured  for  their  more  civi- 
lized neighbors  ;  and  when  these  have  been  weakened  by  the 
neglect  of  military  accomplishments,  have  found  it  easy  to  over- 
turn their  power  and  lay  waste  their  country.  Such  has  in  fact 
been  the  history  of  Asia ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  valor  of 
JEtius  in  the  plains  of  Chalons,  and  Charles  Martel  at  Tours, 
Europe  might  have  been  subject  for  centuries  to  the  sway  of  "  men 
of  unknown  extraction  from  the  East,  who  razed  her  cities  and 
destroyed  the  temples  of  the  gods,  and  carried  her  children  into 
captivity."  If  the  Hyksos  are,  as  some  accounts  represented, 
Arabs,  they  belonged  to  the  same  race  as  that  to  which  the  Hindu, 
the  Parsee  and  the  Christian  have  been  obliged  to  yield  up  their 
lands  and  their  sanctuaries. 

How  long  the  war  and  consequent  devastation  of  Egypt  lasted, 
before  Salatis1  established  himself  as  king  in  Memphis,  we  are  not 
told.  Africanus  must  have  included  in  the  nineteen  years  allotted 
to  Salatis  the  whole  period  both  of  his  reign  and  the  conquest,  as 
he  reckons  nothing  for  an  interregnum,  or  for  that  of  the  last 
king  of  the  preceding  dynasty.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  maxim 
of  the  Egyptian  monarchy,  that  the  sovereign  never  dies.  From 

1  The  name  Salatis,  preserved  by  Josephus  for  Saites,  is  supposed  to  hear 
an  analogy  to  the  Hebrew  t^b"©'  "to  rule."  It  occurs  Gen.  xlii.  6,  hut 
the  endeavor  on  the  strength  of  this  coincidence  to  identify  Salatis  with 
Joseph  is  an  example  of  overstraining  evidence. 


156 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Menes  to  Nectanebus  the  throne  appears  in  the  chronological  lists 
always  full.  The  struggle  lasted  during  the  reigns  of  the  six  first 
Shepherd  kings,  after  which  the  Egyptians  appear  to  have  made 
no  further  attempts  at  resistance. 

If  we  are  to  consider  all  the  dynasties  of  Manetho  as  strictly 
successive,  and  adopt  the  largest  numbers,  93*7  years  (453  4-484) 
must  have  intervened  between  the  12th  dynasty  and  the  invasion 
of  the  Shepherds;  and  again,  953  years  (284  +  518  +  151)  from 
that  invasion  to  their  expulsion.  There  are,  however,  special 
reasons  in  this  case  for  admitting  them  to  have  been  contempora- 
neous. Manetho  does  not  speak  of  one  king  as  being  at  the  head 
of  the  Egyptians  when  the  Shepherds  invaded  them,  but  of  "  those 
"who  commanded  in  the  country1,"  from  which  we  may  infer  that 
the  unity  of  the  monarchy  was  already  dissolved.  Again,  when 
the  Shepherds  are  expelled,  it  is  said  that  "the  kings  from  the 
Thebaid  and  the  rest  of  Egypt  rose  up  against  them2."  It  seems 
probable,  therefore,  that  before  or  in  consequence  of  the  invasion 
of  the  Shepherds  two  separate  kingdoms  were  formed,  one  at 
Thebes,  the  other  at  Xois,  which  lasted  through  the  whole  of  the 
time  that  the  Shepherds- maintained  themselves  in  Egypt.  Each 
of  them  had  peculiar  local  advantages  for  the  establishment  of  a 
kingdom,  which  the  invaders  might  prefer  to  leave  dependent  and 
tributary,  rather  than  attempt  to  subdue.  The  Thebaid  wTas 
remote  from  Memphis  where  they  fixed  their  capital,  and  by  retir- 
ing into  Ethiopia,  as  Amenophis  is  said  to  have  done  on  occasion 
of  a  second  inroad,  the  Egyptian  kings  could  easily  place  them- 
selves beyond  the  reach  of  invaders.    Xois,  on  the  other  hand, 

1  JZaraOaparfiaavTes  M  rrjv  ^aipav  ioTparcvaav  Kai  paSicJS  dpa^rjri  ravrrju  Kara 
Kpa.Tos£l\nv,Kai  rcvg  i]ytfiov£V(ravTag  iv  av  7-77  ^Eipuyaainvoi  k.  r.  X.  (Jos. 
u.  s.  c.  14). 

2  JUsra  ravTa  rciv  ck  rfjf  Qr)0aidos  k  at  rrjs  a  A  A  rj  $  A  t  y  v  tt  t  0  v  0  a  a  t  A  £  w  v  ycvtoQai 
<pr]alv  ht!  rovi  noi^ci/as  iTravaaTaaiv  Kai  iro'Xzjiov  uvtoTs  ovppayniai  pzyav  Kai  ttjAu ^pipiov. 

(Jos.  u.  s.) 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


157 


was  protected  by  its  position  amidst  the  intersecting  branches  of 
the  Nile,  which  probably  rendered  it  inapproachable  by  land  forces. 
When  Sabaco  and  the  Ethiopians  invaded  Egypt,  Anysis  took 
refuge  in  the  marshes,  and  maintained  himself  for  fifty  years  in  an 
island  which  he  made  habitable  by  laying  down  ashes  in  the 
muddy  soil.  When  Inarus  revolted  from  the  Persians  (460  b.c.) 
they  reduced  without  difficulty  the  rest  of  the  country,  but  Amyr- 
tseus  kept  possession  of  the  marshes  for  several  years,  perhaps  as 
many  as  forty1. 

The  Theban  dynasty  lasted  453  years,  the  Xoite  484,  and  these 
numbers  are  not  very  different  from  the  518  or  511  assigned  to 
the  dominion  of  the  Shepherds.  Africanus  indeed  appears  to 
make  the  16th  dynasty  last  518  years,  besides  the  284  of  the 
15th;  but  according  to  Josephus  the  six  kings  of  the  15th  and 
their  descendants2  reigned  511  years.  The  17th  dynasty  of  Shep- 
herds and  Theban  kings  represents  the  period  of  the  struggle, 
described  by  Josephus  as  great  and  protracted.  It  lasted  for  150 
years. 

The  motive  of  the  Shepherd  kings  for  establishing  their  place  of 
arms  at  Abaris,  in  the  Sethroitic  norae,  is  stated,  conjecturally,  by 
Manetho  to  have  been  the  apprehension  of  invasion  from  the  Assy- 
rians, then  predominant  in  Asia.  Another  obvious  reason  was  to 
maintain  a  connexion  with  the  countries  from  which  they  came, 
and  secure  a  retreat  in  the  event  of  the  Egyptians  recovering  their 
independence.  The  Sethroitic  nome  was  a  Typhonian  region,  and 
probably  the  name  itself  was  allusive  to  this  divinity3.  Manetho 

1  Herod.  2,  140.  3,  15.    Thueyd.  1,  110. 

8  Tovtovs  Si   tovs  irpoKaT(x)vona(r\ievovi  (3aai\eas,  tovs  tcov  iroipivoiv  KaXovjitvLov^ 

Kai  tovs  £s  a'OTiov  ytvo  pevovs  Kparrjaai  rfjs  A-iyvirrov  (pqoiv  lrr\  npos 
tois  -rrevTaKOcriois  evSexa.     (Jos.  U.  8  ) 

1  "  Non  spernendara  censeo  observationem  viri  doctissirai  (Marsbami) 
Buspicantis  tractum  ilium  qui  campos  Pelusiacos  comprehendit  et  ad  lacum 
usque  Serbouidem  extenditur,  olim  Setbroiten  dictum,  nomen  boc  acccpisse 


158 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


implies  that  the  name  Abaris  or  Auaris  had  a  similar  reference1, 
but  the  Egyptian  language  affords  no  clue  to  such  an  ety- 
mology. 

Josephus  says  that  in  another  book  of  the  Egyptiaca,  or  in 
another  copy  of  the  passage  which  we  have  already  transcribed, 
Manetho  explains  the  name  Hyksos  as  "captive  shepherds,"  not 
"  shepherd  kings."  To  this  etymology  also  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage, as  we  are  acquainted  with  it,  gives  no  support.  Indeed  the 
Jewish  historian  must  have  calculated  upon  very  uncritical  readers, 
if  he  supposed  that  they  would  believe  the  Shepherds  and  his  fore- 
fathers to  be  the  same.  Except  their  Palestinian  origin,  and  their 
retreat  into  Palestine,  everything  in  their  history  is  different.  The 
children  of  Israel  came  on  the  invitation  of  Pharaoh,  a  handful  of 
men,  into  Egypt,  and  were  placed  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  by  his 
appointment,  to  tend  his  cattle.  When  they  subsequently  multi- 
plied so  as  to  become  an  object  of  alarm  to  the  Egyptians,  they 
were  subject  to  cruel  persecution  and  oppression,  to  which  they 
made  no  resistance,  and  even  when  they  were  encouraged  by  Moses 
to  quit  the  land  of  their  bondage,  they  never  ventured  to  fight  for 
their  liberties.  National  vanity  has  often  strangely  perverted  his- 
tory, claiming  conquests  which  have  never  been  made;  but  if  the 
Israelites  were  really  the  Hyksos  of  Manetho,  they  must  have  fore- 
gone the  glory  of  being  the  conquerors  of  Egypt,  in  order  to  repre- 
sent themselves  as  its  bondsmen. 

Manetho  never  represents  the  Hyksos  as  the  same  with  the 
Jews,  although  Josephus  artfully  slides  in  the  words  "  our  fore- 
fathers" into  the  account  which  he  gives,  apparently  on  Manetho's 

aTyphone,  quem  Egyptios  lingua  sua  cognominasse  Seth  infra  monebimus. 
Addere  possum  rubicundum  Egyptiis  dioi  ros,  ex  quo  confieitur  Sethros 
commodissime  significare  Typhonem  rufums*  (Jablonsky,  P.  III.  p.  65. 
Comp.  vol.  i.  p.  369.) 

1  This  word  has  been  derived  from  "1 an<^  connected  with  the 
sojourning  of  the  Hebrews. 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


159 


authority1.  It  is  true,  Manetho  says  that  the  Hyksos,  when  they 
retired  by  treaty  from  Egypt,  established  themselves  in  Judea  and 
built  Jerusalem.  But  this .  rather  proves  them  not  to  have  been 
the  Jews  ;  who,  instead  of  building  Jerusalem,  did  not  even  pos- 
sess it  till  the  time  of  David.  At  their  entrance,  under  Joshua, 
into  Palestine,  it  was  held  by  the  Jebusites,  a  Canaanitic  tribe2. 
Their  king  was  killed  in  battle  ;  but  his  people  still  held  the  upper 
city,  the  place  of  strength,  while  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  Benjamin 
dwelt  around  the  base.  Manetho,  therefore,  identifies  the  Shep- 
herds, not  with  the  Jews,  but  the  Jebusites ;  and  Josephus,  who 
had  related  the  facts  which  I  have  just  mentioned  in  his  '  Antiqui- 
ties3,' cannot  have  been  ignorant  of  the  fallacy  of  his  own  argu- 
ment. Theophilus  Antiochenus  and  Tatian,  in  the  second  century4, 
when  they  speak  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Egypt,  follow, 
not  Manetho,  but  Josephus  interpreting  Manetho.  It  appears 
therefore  that  the  ancient  and  authentic  records  of  Egypt  made  no 
mention  of  the  Jews,  their  coming  into  Egypt,  their  settlement 
in  Goshen,  their  bondage,  or  their  Exodus.  But  these  was  a 
popular  and  traditionary  account  of  them5  which  Josephus  has 
quoted  from  Manetho,  evidently  formed  under  the  influence  of 
those  feelings  of  hatred  and  contempt  of  which  the  Jews  were  the 
object  on  the  part  of  their  neighbors.  It  belongs,  however,  to 
the  history  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  where  it  will  be  particularly 
considered. 

If  we  could  find  in  the  lists  or  the  monuments,  the  Timceus 
under  whom,  according  to  Manetho,  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds 

1  He  repeats  the  same  unfair  substitution  in  cap.  26,  with  the  additional 
circumstance  that  they  built  the  Temple. 

*  Josh.  x.  1,  23 ;  xv.  63.    Judges,  i.  21 ;  2  Sam.  v.  6. 
»  Ant  5,  2 ;  7,  3. 

4  See  the  passages  quoted  in  Bunsen's  Urkendenbuch,  v.  vi. 
'  Oi*  ck  ruiv  nap'  At'yi'Tteij  ypanuxTttiv  dAX'        atrdj  wpjAoyjjifev   Ik  rui 
ad  tenor  a>s  pv9o\oyoviicy<up  (cap.  16). 


160 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


took  place,  we  might  connect  this  event  with  the  previous  history 
of  Egypt.  Xo  such  name  however  is  found.  He  is  called  Con- 
charis  in  the  Laterculus  of  Syncellus,  a  name  equally  unknown  to 
the  monuments.  The  last  king  in  the  list  of  Eratosthenes  is  Amu- 
thartaios,  and  it  is  probable  that  this  list,  as  it  begins  with  Menes, 
the  founder  of  the  old  monarchy,  ends  with  the  king  who  was 
reigning  when  Salads  established  himself  at  Memphis ;  but  be- 
tween this  name  and  Timaios  there  is  no  resemblance1.  None  of 
the  six  names  of  the  Shepherd  kings  preserved  by  Manetho  has 
been  found  on  the  monuments2,  nor  is  there  any  monumental  or 
architectural,  or  even  sepulchral  trace  of  the  long  period  of  their 
occupation  of  Egypt.  The  39th  shield  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos  is 
that  of  Ammenemes  IV. ;  the  40th,  Aahmes  or  Amosis,  whom 
Mauetho  places  at  the  head  of  the  18th  dynasty.  So  that  the 
whole  interval  of  the  Shepherd  dominion  appears  to  be  passed  over, 
as  one  of  usurpation. 

Of  the  seventy-six  tributary  kings  of  Xois,  no  monuments  remain 
that  can  be  referred  to  them  on  satisfactory  evidence ;  though  it  is 
by  no  means  improbable  that  among  the  many  which  have  not 
yet  had  a  place  assigned  them  in  the  series8,  some  may  belong  to 
this  dynasty.  The  tributary  kings  of  Thebes,  however,  during  the 
same  interval,  have  been  supposed  to  have  a  record  in  the  tablet  of 
Karnak  and  in  the  papyrus  of  Turin4.    Five,  as  already  mentioned, 

1  Bunsen  would  correct  ' AnovOapraios  in  Eratosthenes  into  'AfiwrifiaToi, 
which  he  substitutes  conjecturally  for  fa  (3atrtXtvs  HMIN  TTMAIOE  in  the 
extract  from  Josephus. 

2  A  shield  which  reads  Ases  is  the  4th  in  the  tablet  of  Karnak,  but  from 
its  place  cannot  be  Asses,  the  Hyksos  king  of  Josephus.  See  p.  121,  122, 
153  of  this  volume. 

3  A  long  list  of  these  may  be  seen  in  Leemans'  Monumens  Egyptiens  por- 
tans  des  Legendes  royales,  and  subsequent.discoveries  have  much  increased 
their  number.    See  Barucchi  Oonologia  Egizia.    Turin,  1844. 

4  Lepsius,  Denkm.  taf.  i. 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


161 


bore  the  name  of  Sebekaiep,  and  two  of  Nefruatep.  Such  repeti- 
tions, resembling  the  Louises,  Henries  and  Georges  of  modern 
royal  families,  appear  to  have  been  very  common  among  the  Egyp- 
tian dynasties.  It  seems  upon  the  whole  probable  that  the  Sebe- 
kateps  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  dynasty,  since  a' 
monument  dated  in  the  reign  of  one  of  them  speaks  of  Ammene- 
mes  III.  as  deceased1.  The  whole  number  of  shields  is  thirty  in 
the  second  half  of  the  chamber  of  Karnak,  but  several  are  illegible. 
As  the  kings  of  Thebes  in  the  Hyksos  period  were  more  than 
thirty,  some  cause,  to  us  unknown,  must  have  led  to  the  selection 
of  these.  The  fragments  of  the  Turin  papyrus  show  some  of  the 
same  names  as  the  chamber  of  Karnak2,  and  when  entire,  this 
portion  of  the  mauuscript  appears  to  have  contained  sixty-five 
shields. 

The  seventeenth  dynasty,  as  it  now  stands,  is  apparently  cor- 
rupt ;  at  least  it  is  improbable  that  there  should  be  exactly  forty- 
three  kings  both  of  the  Shepherds  and  the  Thebans,  and  that  in 
both  lines  kings  should  reign  on  the  average  only  three  and  a  half 
years.  The  error,  however,  appears  to  be  in  these  numbers,  not 
in  the  duration  of  the  dynasty.  The  kings  of  Thebes  declared 
themselves  independent,  and  cast  off  their  allegiance  as  tributaries 
to  the  Shepherd  kings  of  Memphis.  A  long  and  bloody  war,  or 
succession  of  wars,  ensued,  for  a  century  and  a  half,  which  ended 
in  the  Hyksos  being  driven  by  Misphragmuthosis  into  Abaris. 

Without  the  testimony  of  Manetho,  we  should  have  been  wholly 
ignorant  of  this  most  important  event  in  the  history  of  Egypt. 
For  neither  Herodotus  nor  Diodorus,  nor  any  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  historians,  give  any  account  of  it.  This  is  the  more  remark- 
able, as  the  Egyptians  had  informed  them  of  their  subjugation  by 

1  Birch  in  Gliddon's  Otia  Egyptiaca,  p.  82. 

8  Lepsius,  Denkm.  taf.  iv.  v.  vi.  Bunsen's  plate  v.  The  names  in  the 
shields,  which  in  the  papyrus  are  written  in  the  hieratic  character,  are  here 
transcribed  in  the  hieroglyphic. 


162 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  Ethiopians,  so  that  national  vanity  did  not  carry  them  so  far 
as  to  suppress  all  facts  inconsistent  with  the  immemorial  indepen- 
dence of  their  nation.  There  is  indeed  a  passage  before  referred 
to  in  Herodotus,  in  which  a  trace  of  the  invasion  of  the  Hyksos 
may  be  visible,  but  which  could  never  have  been  so  understood 
without  the  explanation  which  Manetho  affords.  Speaking-  of  the 
odium  in  which  the  memory  of  the  builders  of  the  pyramids  was 
held,  he  says1,  "  that  the  people  did  not  much  like  to  name  them; 
but  even  called  them  the  pyramids  of  the  shepherd  Philition  or 
Philitis,  who  fed  his  flocks  in  this  region  at  that  time."  Since  the 
pyramids  have  been  explored,  no  doubt  can  remain  that  they  are 
the  work  of  native  kings,  and  of  a  much  earlier  time  ;  yet  it  is 
possible  that  among  the  various  traditions  to  which  their  high 
antiquity  had  given  birth,  one  may  have  connected  them  with  the 
obscurely  remembered  invasion  of  the  Hyksos,  and  that  the  name 
Philitis  may  represent  Philistim.  The  scriptural  writers  cer- 
tainly attribute  a  connection  with  Egypt  to  the  Philistines2,  who 
in  Amos  ix.  7  are  spoken  of  as  an  immigrant  people,  like  the 
Israelites  themselves ;  and  the  name,  though  confined  in  the  Bible 
to  a  small  district,  was  used  for  the  whole  country,  which  thence 
derived  the  name  of  Palestine.  The  account  given  by  Apollodo- 
rus  (2,  1,  3),  that  iEgyptus  the  son  of  Belus  brother  of  Agenor, 
king  of  Phoenicia,  came  from  Arabia  and  conquered  Egypt,  unhis- 
torical  as  it  is,  may  have  had  its  origin  in  the  invasion  of  the  Hyk- 
sos, who  are  called  both  Phoenicians  and  Arabians,  and  who  settled 
in  Palestine  on  their  expulsion  from  Egypt3.    The  connexion  of 

1  2,  128. 

8  Gen.  x.  14.  The  Caslukim  there  mentioned  are  probably  the  dwellers 
about  the  Mons  Canux,  a  part  of  that  Typhonian  region  which  the  Hyksos 

occupied.     Aifivr)  Htp0iovis  «rai  X^Pa  nePl  ^v  ta,Jl  T°v  Tv0a3i»a  Ktxpv^Qai,  it\r)oiov 

ovaav  rov  npos  rai  IlnXovaU)  Kaaiov  bpovi.  (Eust  ad  Dion.  Perieg.  248.  Herod. 
3,  5.) 

*  "  In  Agenoris  ex  ^Egypto  in  Phoenician!  migratione  videtur  latere  opinio 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


163 


the  mythe  of  Isis,  Osiris  and  Typhon  with  Phoenicia,  of  the  Tyrian 
with  the  Egyptian  Hercules1,  and  generally  of  Phoenician  with 
Egyptian  civilization,  will  be  best  explained  by  the  supposition 
that  the  nomad  tribes  of  Palestine  were  masters  of  Egypt  for  seve- 
ral generations,  and  subsequently  returned  to  the  same  country, 
carrying  with  them  the  knowledge  of  letters  and  the  arts,  which  they 
were  the  instruments  of  diffusing  over  Asia  Minor  and  Greece. 
Phoenicia  has  evidently  been  the  connecting  link  between  these 
countries  and  Egypt,  which  directly  can  have  exercised  only  a  very 
slight  and  transient  influence  upon  them. 

The  narrative  of  the  invasion,  the  dominion  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  Hyksos  contains  nothing  that  is  incredible ;  but  the  dura- 
tion which  is  assigned  to  their  sway  is  certainly  startling,  not  so 
much  because  it  requires  a  great  extension  of  Egyptian  chronology, 
as  because  we  do  not  find  in  Egypt  the  traces  which  we  might 
naturally  expect  of  a  dominion  said  to  have  lasted  six  centuries  and 
a  half.  There  are  no  marks,  at  least  none  that  have  been  ascer- 
tained, of  the  city  of  Abaris,  whose  walls  included  a  space  more 
than  double  that  of  Rome  under  Diocletian,  and  not  much  inferior 
to  that  of  London  at  the  present  day2.  Although  they  occupied  a 
country  in  which  pyramids,  obelisks,  temples,  and  palaces  pre- 
sented themselves  on  every  side,  they  seem  never  to  have  employed 
the  art  of  their  subjects  in  raising  any  corresponding  memorial  of 
themselves.  An  equal  degree  of  inertness  must  have  seized  on  the 
Egyptians  themselves.  Under  the  12th  dynasty,  to  judge  from  the 
descriptions  and  remains  of  the  Labyrinth,  art  and  skill  must  have 
been  at  a  high  point  of  elevation;  under  the  18th  dynasty  they 
showed  themselves  in  unimpaired  perfection  ;  but  not  a  single  con- 
temporaneous work  of  art  has  been  found,  from  the  13  th  to  the 

de  communi  nescio  qua  Phcenicum  et  JSgyptiorum  credita  origine."  (Heyne 
ad  Apollod.  2,  1,  4.    Kenrick,  Egypt  of  Herod.  2,  182.) 
1  Herod.  2,  44. 

a  Joseph,  c.  Ap.  1,  14,  with  Bunsen's  note,  Urkundenb.  p.  44. 


164 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


18th  dynasty.  These  things  are  not  sufficient  to  make  us  doubt 
the  fact  of  the  invasion  and  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos;  but  they 
may  excite  a  suspicion  that  the  chronology  of  this  period  of  oppres- 
sion and  confusion  is  not  to  be  relied  on,  and  that  as  usual  it  has 
been  unduly  extended1. 

The  occupation  of  Egypt  by  the  Hyksos  appears  to  have  been 
from  first  to  last  military.  The  fortified  camp  of  Abaris,  the  pos- 
session of  Memphis  and  of  various  other  places  throughout  Egypt 
which  were  garrisoned  by  them,  placed  the  whole  country  entirely 
in  their  power ;  but  the  difference  of  religion,  language  and  insti- 
tutions would  prevent  any  amalgamation  between  them  and  a 
people  so  peculiarly  inflexible  in  all  these  relations  as  the  Egyp- 
tians were.  Their  monarchs  took  care  to  preserve  the  military  dis- 
cipline, on  which  the  maintenance  of  their  superiority  depended : 
from  Memphis,  where  the  seat  of  their  government  was  established, 
they  visited  Abaris  every  summer,  and  by  military  exercises  and 
reviews  at  once  kept  up  the  spirit  of  the  soldiers  and  made  an 
imposing  display  of  force  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives  and  foreigners. 
During  the  first  six  reigns  a  policy  of  destruction  and  extermina- 
tion was  pursued ;  afterwards  it  should  seem  that  on  payment  of 
tribute,  the  sovereigns  of  Thebes  and  Xois  were  allowed  to  exercise 
the  powers  of  royalty,  and  the  people  to  pursue  their  labors  in 
peace. 

Probably  the  condition  of  Greece  under  the  Turks  affords  the 
nearest  historical  parallel  to  that  of  the  Egyptians  under  the 

1  Bunsen  extends  the  dominion  of  the  Shepherds  to  929  years  (B.  3,  p.  48, 
Germ.),  and  supposes  the  fifty-three  kings  mentioned  by  Apollodorus 
(Sync.  p.  14*7.  279,  ed.  Dind.)  to  be  the  Theban  kings  contemporary  with 
the  Shepherds.  Lepsius  (Einl.  p.  520)  supposes  that  Apollodorus  began  his 
second  list  with  Amosis,  the  head  of  the  18th  dynasty  and  of  the  New 
Monarchy,  and  ended  it  with  Amasis  the  contemporary  of  Cambyses.  Here 
the  Laterculus  of  Syncellus  ends,  and  it  comprehends  in  this  interval  just 
fifty-three  kings. 


THIRTEENTH  TO   SEVENTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


165 


Hyksos.  In  both  cases  a  nomadic  and  military  tribe  have  esta- 
blished themselves  among  a  sedentary  and  civilized  people,  whose 
energies  had  been  impaired ;  in  both,  the  repugnance  occasioned 
by  difference  of  blood,  language  and  religion  has  not  only  pre- 
vented any  fusion  of  the  two  races,  but  has  preserved  the  hostile 
feeling  between  them  in  undiminished  strength,  after  the  cessation 
of  a  state  of  warfare.  The  Turks  have  been  said  to  be  only 
encamped  in  Europe,  and  this  was  literally  true  of  the  Hyksos  in 
Egypt.  The  number  of  240,000,  said  to  have  been  collected  within 
the  walls  of  Abaris,  probably  represents  the  average  amount  of  the 
Hyksos  population,  who  living  on  the  tribute  paid  by  the  Egyp- 
tians, followed  no  other  occupation  than  that  of  arms,  and  came  in 
succession  to  their  fortified  camp  to  undergo  their  military  training. 
The  recovery  of  their  country  and  their  capital  by  the  Greeks 
seemed  at  one  time  imminent ;  had  it  taken  place,  their  language 
and  religion  wrould  have  been  reinstated  with  no  change  from  the 
long  predominance  of  the  Turks ;  the  Mosch  of  the  Sultan  would 
have  become  again  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia,  and  the  people  have 
re-appeared,  after  the  oppression  of  four  centuries,  identical  with 
the  subjects  of  the  Palseologi,  but  regenerated  in  spirit  by  the 
struggle  by  which  their  independence  was  purchased.  In  such  a 
case  it  is  conceivable  that  their  tables  of  royal  succession  might 
omit  all  mention  of  the  Mahmouds,  Selims  and  Mustaphas,  and  pass 
from  the  last  Constantine  to  the  first  Otho.  It  is  true,  the  period 
of  Turkish  sway  is  not  equal  to  the  shortest  time  at  which  the 
dominion  of  the  Hyksos  in  Egypt  has  been  reckoned.  But  no 
nation  has  ever  equalled  the  Egyptian  in  the  fixedness  of  its  cha- 
racter and  institutions.  The  relations  of  the  Greeks  to  their  Turk- 
ish masters  might  have  continued  much  longer  unchanged,  had 
they  both  been  as  completely  insulated  from  all  foreign  influences 
and  political  combinations  as  the  Egyptians  were. 

On  the  whole,  though  it  is  difficult  to  realize  to  ourselves  a 
dominion  continuing  for  six  centuries  and  a  half,  and  then  termi- 


166 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


nating  with  so  few  traces  as  the  Hyksos  left  in  Egypt,  this  diffi- 
culty is  not  sufficient  to  justify  us  in  rejecting  the  positive  testi- 
mony of  Manetho  to  events  which  he  could  have  no  motive  to 
feign.  We  have  indeed  his  testimony  only  at  the  second  hand, 
and  that  not  of  a  wholly  trustworthy  witness.  But  though  Jose- 
phus  has  certainly  perverted,  we  cannot  believe  that  he  invented, 
his  alleged  quotation  from  Manetho.  His  learned  adversary  would 
have  easily  detected  such  a  fraud. 

The  confusion  and  destruction  which  attended  the  conquest  of 
the  Hyksos,  have  rendered  the  chronology  of  this  period  of  Egyp- 
tian history  quite  uncertain,  beyond  the  reigns  of  the  six  kings  of 
the  15th  dynasty.  We  can  place  no  reliance  on  the  assigned 
length  of  periods,  which  furnish  us  with  neither  names,  nor  facts, 
nor  monuments,  because  we  have  no  control  over  the  fictions  or 
the  errors  of  historians.  Until  this  deficiency  is  supplied,  it  must 
remain  a  fruitless  attempt  to  carry  up  a  connected  chain  of  authen- 
tic chronology,  through  the  Middle  Monarchy  to  the  termination, 
and  thence  to  the  commencement  of  the  Old,  even  if  the  chrono- 
logy of  the  latter  were  better  ascertained  than  it  is. 


book  in. 


THE  NEW  MONARCHY. 


Eighteenth  Dynasty,  according  to  Africanus. 
(Sync.  p.  62-72  ;  115-136,  Dind.) 

Years. 

1.  Sixteen  Diospolite  kings,  of  whom  the  first  was  Amos1, 

under  whom  Moses  went  out  of  Egypt,  as  we  shall 
show. 

2.  Chebkos,  reigned   13 

3.  Amenophthis   24 

4.  Amersis   22 

5.  Misaphris   13 

6.  mlsphragmtjthosis8   26 

7.  Touthmosis   9 

8.  Amexophis   31 

This  is  he  who  is  thought  to  be  Memnon  and  the  Speak- 
ing Statue. 

9.  Horus   37 

10.  Acherres   32 

11.  Rathos   6 

12.  Chebres   12 

13.  Acherres   12 

14.  Armesses   5 

15.  Ramesses                                                               .  1 

16.  Amenophath   19 


1  Amos  should  have  headed  the  list  of  Africanus  with  the  years  of  his 
reign,  but  in  consequence  of  the  incidental  mention  of  his  name  this  seem3 
to  have  been  omitted.    Syncellus  calls  his  father  Asaeth. 

*  By  the  general  consent  of  critics,  MIE^PArMOYeflSIS  has  been 
substituted  for  AAIE^PArMOYGQILIi;  in  the  text  of  Josephus  from 
Eusebius  and  Syncellus. 


168 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


According  to  Eusebius  : — 

Eighteenth  Dynasty. 

Years. 


1.  Fourteen  Diospolite  kings,  of  whom  the  first,  Amosis, 

reigned  25 

2.  Chebrox  13 

3.  Amexophis  21 

4.  Miphb.es  12 

5.  mlspiiragmuthosis  26 

6.  Toutiimosis   9 

7.  Amexophis  31 

He  is  thought  to  be  Memnon  and  the  Speaking  Statue. 

8.  Horus  36  [88] 

9.  achexcherses  16  [12] 

Under  him  Moses  led  the  Jews  in  their  Exodus  from 
Egypt. 

10.  Acherb.es  8 

11.  Cherres  15 

12.  Armais,  who  is  also  Danaus  5 

Afterwards  being  exiled  from  Egypt,  and  flying  from 
his  brother  iEgyptus,  he  comes  into  Greece,  and 
having  made  himself  master  of  Argos,  rules  the 
Argives. 

13.  Ramesses,  who  is  also  iEgyptus  68 

14.  Amexophis  40 

From  the  Tablet  of  Abydos. 


It  has  been  already  observed  that  this  monument  contains  no 
names  of  kings,  except  Ramses  the  Great,  only  the  prenominal  or 
titular  shields.  The  researches  of  Champollion,  however,  aided 
and  corrected  by  those  of  our  countrymen  and  of  Lepsius,  have 
ascertained  the  corresponding  phonetic  names,  and  thus  we  are 
enabled  to  present  the  following  series  for  comparison  with  the 
lists  of  Manetho  and  Eusebius  : — 


1.  Aahmes. 

2.  Amexoph  (I.). 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


1G9 


3.  Thothmjes  (L). 

4.  Thothmes  (IL). 

5.  Thothmes  (ILL). 

6.  Amenoph  (II. ). 

7.  Thothmes  (IV.). 

8.  Amenoph  (IIL). 

9.  Hobus. 

10.  Ramses  (I.). 

11.  MENEPHTnAH  (I.). 

12.  Ramses  (II. ). 

13.  Ramses  (IIL),  in  whose  reign  the  tablet  of 

Abydos  was  erected. 

The  discrepancies  are  obvious.  The  Amoses  of  the  lists  is  evident- 
ly the  Aahmes  of  the  tablet  and  monuments,  but  Chebros  appears 
neither  on  the  tablet  nor  elsewhere.  Amenoph,  the  second  on  the 
tablet,  is  the  third  in  the  lists ;  Miphres  and  Misphraginuthosis  are 
again  not  found  on  the  tablet.  Touthmosis  of  the  lists  answers  to 
Thothmes  of  the  tablet ;  but  whereas  the  tablet  gives  three  in  succes- 
sion of  this  name,  the  lists  present  only  one.  Amenophis  TT.  is  found 
in  both,  followed,  however,  on  the  tablet  by  a  fourth  Thothmes  and 
a  third  Amenoph.  In  Horus  again  they  agree  ;  but  his  successor 
on  the  tablet  is  Ramses,  in  the  lists  Achencherses  or  Acherres. 

There  can  hardly  be  a  question  which  authority  is  to  be  prefer- 
red. No  better  evidence  than  that  of  a  monument,  erected  by 
public  authority,  can  be  produced  in  an  historical  inquiry.  Its 
testimony  is  liable  to  no  corruption,  such  as  written  documents 
may  undergo,  from  accident  or  fraud,  nor  to  the  variations  which 
are  inevitable  in  oral  tradition.  It  represents  the  most  authentic 
knowledge  of  the  age  in  which  it  was  erected,  and  must  therefore 
take  precedence  of  every  other  kind  of  document.  It  is  true  that 
this  age  may  have  falsely  believed  itself  possessed  of  certain  know- 
ledge, and  such  a  belief  could  acquire  no  additional  authority  by 
being  recorded  on  stone.  There  is  no  room  here,  however,  for  this 
distinction.    The  time  of  the  erection  of  the  mcnument  was  not 

vol.  ir.  8 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


much  further  removed  from  the  reign  of  Amosis  than  the  present 
year  from  the  Restoration,  and  it  is  incredible  that  the  Egyptians, 
so  learned  in  their  own  history  and  antiquities,  should  have  been 
in  error  in  regard  to  the  succession  of  their  sovereigns  during  this 
period.  That  Manetho  in  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies,  when  the 
tablet  of  Abydos  was  extant  in  its  integrity,  with  the  command  of 
numerous  other  documents,  should  commit  an  error  on  such  a 
point,  is  indeed  strange,  but  less  incredible  than  an  error  in  the 
tablet  itself.  There  is  in  the  Rameseion  at  Thebes  a  representation 
of  a  procession  in  which  the  ancestors  of  Rameses  the  Great  appear, 
and  their  succession  from  Amenoph  I.  corresponds  with  that  of 
the  tablet  of  Abydos1.  Again,  we  find  in  a  tomb  of  Qoorneh  a 
succession  of  four,  from  Thothmes  III.  to  Amenophis  III.,  in  which 
there  is  the  same  correspondence.  A  procession  at  Medinet  Aboo, 
similar  to  the  first-mentioned,  begins  with  Amenophis  III.  and 
goes  on  to  Ramses  IV.  This  is  beyond  the  limit  of  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  but  as  far  as  they  are  co-extensive  they  agree3. 

There  are  some  indications  of  confusion  of  names  in  Manetho's 
list.  If  we  omit  Chebros,  a  name  without  analogy  among  those 
of  this  dynasty,  Amosis  is  succeeded  by  Amenoph,  according  to 
the  tablet ;  Misaphris,  Mephres  (Joseph.)  or  Miphres  (Euseb.)  and 
Misphragmuthosis  have  the  appearance  of  both  originating  from  a 
title  and  a  phonetic  name,  Miphra-Touthmosis,  or  "  Thothmes 
beloved  of  Phre8."  These  will  be  the  Thothmes  I.  and  II.  of  the 
tablet ;  and  the  Touthmosis  of  the  lists  will  correspond  with  the 
Thothmes  III.  of  the  tablet.  Amenophis  will  then  occupy  the 
same  position  in  both.    But  here  again  occurs  a  discrepancy. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  204.  2  Rosellini,  ibid. 

8  Thothmes  III.  actually  bears  in  the  monuments  the  title  of  Met  re,  or 
with  the  article  Met  phre,  "beloved  of  Phre."  (See  Birch,  Brit  Mus.  P.  2, 
p.  80.)  Although  no  indisputable  example  has  been  found  of  a  title  substi- 
tuted for  a  name,  Barneses- Meiamoun  affords  one  of  the  title  being  incorpo- 
rated with  the  name. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


m 


Amenoph  II.,  the  vocal  Menmon  of  the  lists,  is  followed  on  the 
tablet  by  Thothmes  IV. ;  but  in  the  lists  by  Horus,  who  in  the 
tablet  succeeds  Amenophis  III.  After  Horus  the  diversity  becomes 
still  greater.  He  is  followed  on  the  tablet  by  Ramses  I.,  in  the 
lists  by  Achencherses  or  Acherres,  and  the  name  of  Rameses  in 
the  shape  of  Armesses  or  Armais  only  appears  after  Rathos,  Che- 
bres,  and  Acherres. 

There  is  a  remarkable  variation  in  the  lists  themselves.  Accord- 
ing to  African  us,  Amenophis  I.  is  succeeded  by  Amersis,  or,  accord- 
ing to  one  MS.  Amensis,  who  does  not  appear  in  Eusebius  nor 
on  the  tablet.  Africanus  seemed  to  have  gained  confirmation  from 
the  discovery  of  a  personage  named  Amense  among  the  royal 
monuments  of  the  18th  dynasty,  with  this  peculiarity,  that  the 
inscriptions  in  which  this  figure  appears  have  the  feminine  termi- 
nation, article,  and  pronoun,  and  the  title  "Beneficent  Goddess, 
Lady  of  the  World,"  while  the  dress,  attributes,  and  insignia  are 
those  of  a  male1.  Hence  Champollion  devised  the  hypothesis  that 
Thothmes  I.  immediately  succeeded  to  Amenophis  I. ;  that  his  son 
Thothmes  II.  followed  him  and  died  without  issue.  His  sister 
Amense  succeeded  him  and  reigned  twenty-one  years ;  her  hus- 
band, who  was  named  Thothmes,  exercised  the  rights  of  sove- 
reignty in  her  name,  and  was  the  father  of  Thothmes  III.  Amense 
survived  her  husband  and  married  for  a  second,  Amenenthes,  who 
also  governed  in  her  name,  and  was  not  only  regent  during  the 
minority  of  Thothmes  III.,  but  exercised  sovereignty  conjointly 
with  him  for  several  years.  The  shields  which  contain  the  title  of 
this  supposed  Amenenthes  have  very  generally  been  defaced,  and 
the  legend  of  the  second  or  third  Thothmes  substituted  for  them, 
on  a  variety  of  monuments  still  existing  at  Thebes.  This  Cham- 
pollion believed  to  have  been  the  effect  of  the  hatred  which  Thoth- 
mes III.  cherished  towards  his  step-father,  by  whom  he  had  been 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  222,  223.    Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  xv 


172 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


oppressed  during  the  years  of  his  minority.  The  name  which  he 
read  Amenenhe  or  Amenenthes,  is  found,  as  well  as  that  of 
Amense,  on  the  obelisk  of  Karnak,  along  with  his  image ;  and  if 
Rosellini  may  be  believed,  it  exhibits  traits  unlike  those  of  the 
sovereigns  of  this  dynasty,  and  thus  favors  the  supposition  that  ho 
was  a  stranger  in  blood1. 

This  ingenious  hypothesis  has  not  stood  the  test  of  subsequent 
research.  The  name  Amenset  (for  such  it  is,  not  Amense)  is  read 
by  Lepsius  Set  amen;  and  Amenenthe,  Nemt  Amen  (Hatusu). 
This  name  has  feminine  affixes,  and  therefore  appears  to  represent 
a  female  sovereign,  or  at  least  regent,  having  the  titles  "  Daughter 
of  the  Sun,  Beneficent  Goddess,  Lady  of  the  Worlds."  He  thus 
disposes  of  the  relations  of  the  first  sovereigns  of  the  18th  dynasty. 
Amosis,  the  founder,  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Amenophis,  who 
had  a  sister,  Set  Amen,  and  a  brother,  Thothmes  I.  Thothmes  I. 
had  a  queen  Aahmes,  whose  relation  to  the  founder  of  the  dynasty 
is  uncertain,  and  who  exercised  during  his  reign  the  functions  of  a 
female  regent.  This  Aahmes  is  the  Amersis  or  Amensis  of  the 
lists,  the  Amessis  described  by  Josephus  as  the  sister  of  Ameno- 
phis, which  would  make  her  to  be  the  daughter  of  Amosis. 
Thothmes  I.  had  two  sons,  who  reigned  successively  under  the 
titles  of  Thothmes  II.  and  Thothmes  III.  During  the  reigns  of 
both  Thothmes  II.  and  III.,  the  regency  was  exercised  by  their 
sister  Nemt  Amen.  The  succession  then  proceeds,  without  any 
further  interruption,  from  father  to  son,  through  Amenophis  IL, 
Thothmes  IV.,  Amenophis  III.,  and  Horus,  who  appears  to  have 
left  no  male  child,  as  Acherres  or  Acencheres,  the  next  in  the  lists, 
is  said  by  Josephus  to  have  been  his  daughter2.  Such  is  the  com- 
bination by  which  Lepsius  and  Bunsen  have  endeavored  to  recon- 
cile the  monuments  with  the  lists.    We  may  adopt  it  provisionally, 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  228. 

3  Bunsen,  Dynasty  xviil  pi.  vii.    ^Egypten's  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  78. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


173 


with  a  caution  to  the  reader  how  uncertain  are  all  such  systems  in 
the  present  state  of  Egyptian  history,  and  especially  without  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  evidence  on  which  it  is  founded.  Any  other 
arrangement  must  be  equally  hypothetical. 

Manetho,  in  the  extracts  of  Josephus,  makes  no  mention  of 
Amosis  as  bearing  part  in  the  long  war  which  preceded  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Hyksos  and  their  blockade  in  Abaris,  under  Misphrag- 
muthosis.  His  monuments,  however,  bear  traces  of  his  being 
engaged  in  war.  A  funeral  inscription  of  one  of  his  naval  officer?, 
quoted  by  Champollion-Figeac1,  relates  that  he  entered  into  his 
service  while  the  king  was  residing  at  Tanis;  that  battles  were 
fought  upon  the  water ;  that  a  part  of  the  troops  were  detached  to 
the  South ;  that  these  operations  took  place  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Amosis,  and  that  in  the  following  year  he  went  to  Ethiopia  to 
collect  tribute.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  author  has  not  told 
us  where  this  monument  exists,  nor  by  whom  it  has  been  read,  and 
therefore  we  cannot  cite  it  with  perfect  confidence.  There  r.re, 
however,  unquestionable  records  of  his  reign.  At  Semneh  in  Nubia 
there  is  a  tablet  on  the  south  front  of  the  western  temple,  in  hiero- 
glyphics of  an  archaic  character,  over  wdiich  a  subsequent  inscrip- 
tion has  been  cut.  The  title  of  Amosis  occurs  in  it,  along  with 
that  of  Thothmes  IL,  and  it  appears  to  commemorate  the  services 
of  one  who  had  been  an  officer  of  Amosis2.  Two  tablets  in  the 
Louvre  contain  similar  records,  extending  through  the  reigns  of 
Amosis  and  his  successors  to  Thothmes  III.  Though  their  import 
is  obscure,  and  it  is  scarcely  possible  that  one  individual  can  be 
relating  his  own  services  and  their  rewards,  through  so  long  a 
period,  there  appears  to  be  mention  made  of  prisoners  taken  in  war 
a  the  reign  of  Amosis3.    The  quarry  of  Masarah,  in  the  Gebel-el- 

1  L'Univers.  TEgypte,  p.  300. 
Young,  Hieroglyphics  of  Egyptian  Society,  pi.  91.    Birch,  Trans,  of 
.  Soc.  of  Lit.  2nd  series,  2,  325. 

>Tr.  Birch,  to  avoid  the  difficulty  of  supposing  the  same  individual  to 


174 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Mokattam,  contains  a  stele,  on  which  is  a  representation  of  a  block 
of  stone,  drawn  on  a  sledge  by  three  pair  of  oxen1.  Above  is  an 
inscription  bearing  the  title  of  Amosite,  along  with  his  queen  Nofre- 
at-are  or  Nofre-are,  and  declaring  that  in  the  twenty-second  year 
of  his  reign,  the  quarries  of  hard  white  stone  were  worked  for  the 
repair  of  the  abode  of  Ptah,  and  the  abode  of  Amun  in  Thebes. 
Such  repairs  might  be  undertaken  at  any  time ;  but  if  we  suppose 
that  the  Hyksos  had  been  recently  driven  into  Lower  Egypt,  the 
restoration  of  the  temples  of  Memphis  and  Thebes,  which  had  suf- 
fered from  their  ravages,  would  be  one  of  the  first  acts  which  a 
pious  sovereign  would  undertake.  There  is  another  inscription  of 
the  same  import,  and  of  the  same  year  of  the  reign  of  Amosis,  but 
less  perfect,  in  the  quarries  of  the  Gebel-el-Mokattam2. 

To  Amosis  succeeded,  according  to  the  tablet  of  Abydos  and 
the  other  lists  which  I  have  quoted,  Amenophis  I.  He  was  unques- 
tionably a  warlike  and  victorious  sovereign.  The  monument 
already  quoted  speaks  of  captives  made  in  the  land  of  Kesh  and 
also  in  the  North,  among  an  unknown  people  called  Kehak.  If 
these  are  an  Asiatic  nation,  we  may  presume  that  the  frontier  land 
of  lower  Egypt  towards  Palestine  had  been  cleared  of  the  Shep- 
herds, as  Amenophis  could  not  otherwise  have  ventured  to  inarch 
into  Asia.  His  presence  also  in  Ethiopia  is  recorded  in  a  grotto 
at  Ibrim,  near  Aboosimbel,  where  he  is  represented  sitting3  in  the 

have  been  sixty  four  years  in  service,  would  reduce  the  lengths  of  these 
kings'  reigns;  but  neither  the  lists  nor  the  monuments  allow  this  short- 
ening. 

1  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  3,  99.    Masarah  Quarries,  Tablet  No.  6. 

51  Howard  Vyse,  Pyramids,  vol.  3,  p.  94.  Masarah  Quarries,  Tablet  No.  8. 

3  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xxviii.  1.  He  calls  the  officers  athlophori,  as  if  the 
fans  were  ensigns  of  victory;  but  from  the  mode  of  carrying  them,  they 
appear  evidently  to  be  what  Champollion  called  them,  fly-flaps, 
they  ensigns  of  victory,  it  would  be  somewhat  hasty  to  infer  with  Roselli... 
that  "they  signify  the  victory  wluch  Amenophis  had  gained  over  the  Hyk- 
sos."   (Mon.  Stor.  iii.  L  74.) 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


175 


middle  of  a  small  temple,  attended  by  an  officer  of  state,  who 
holds  over  him  the  feather-fan,  and  two  others,  fly-flaps.  In  the 
collection  of  Egyptian  antiquities  made  by  Mr.  Salt,  and  since 
transferred  to  the  Louvre,  are  found  several  small  tablets,  resembling 
in  shape  the  stele  of  an  inscription,  on  which  Amenophis  L  is  repre- 
sented, grasping  captives  by  the  hair,  carrying  them  with  their  heads 
downwards,  and  preparing  to  destroy  them  with  the  curved  battle- 
axe1.  Some  of  these  are  clad  in  leopards'  skins,  and  are  natives 
of  the  South ;  others,  from  their  ample  drapery,  plainly  belong  to 
colder  climates.  Conventionally  they  represent  the  Ethiopian  and 
the  Asiatic  people,  and  we  may  conclude  that  Amenophis  carried 
on  wars  successfully  against  both.  These  tablets  appear  to  have 
been  designed  to  be  worn  as  ornaments  on  the  breast ;  and  it  is  a 
reasonable  inference  that  a  sovereign  who  wras  thus  honored  must 
have  'acquired  the  affection  of  his  people  by  some  distinguished 
service ;  such  as  the  recovery  of  the  ancient  dominion  of  the 
Sesortasens  and  Amenemes  over  Ethiopia.  On  another  of  these 
tablets  the  king  appears  grasping  a  lion  by  the  tail,  either  sym- 
bolically, or  as  a  record  of  his  prowess  in 'hunting.  One  of  the 
wives  of  Amenophis  (Aahmes)  is  always  represented  black2.  She 
appears  beside  her  husband,  along  with  another  who  is  of  a  fair 
complexion,  on  a  tablet  in  the  British  Museum3.  It  is  not  indeed 
absolutely  certain  that  the  dark  lady  was  the  wife  of  Amenophis  ; 
her  name  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  wife  of  Ainosis,  and  the  title 
of  "royal  dame,"  which  she  bears,  is  consistent  with  her  having 
been  the  widow  of  the  predecessor  of  Amenophis.    In  either  case, 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  107.  A  similar  tablet  is  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  represents  Amenophis  in  a  war-chariot  (Birch,  Gall,  of  B.  M.  P.  2,  pL 
30). 

•  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xlv. 

*  Birch,  Gall,  of  Ant  2,  pi.  30.  The  fair-complexion ed  wife  whose  name 
was  Aahotph,  is  also  found  with  Amenophis  in  a  tomb  at  Qoorneh  (Rosel- 
lini, Mon.  Stor.  1,  212). 


176 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  renewal  of  relations  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  is  equally 
evident. 

Amenophis  I.  appears  from  various  monuments  to  have  been 
the  object  of  a  kind  of  posthumous  religious  worship,  different  in 
its  kind  from  the  honors  which  were  sometimes  paid  to  deceased 
monarch?  in  Egypt.  In  one  of  the  little  chapels,  excavated  among 
the  quarries  of  Silsilis,  in  the  reign  of  Menephthah,  Amenoph  L,  along 
with  Atmoo  and  another  Egyptian  deity,  receives  an  offering  of 
incense  from  the  king,  and  in  the  tombs  of  private  individuals  at 
Thebes,  similar  honors  are  paid  to  him  on  the  part  of  the  deceased1. 
One  of  these  tombs  is  of  the  age  of  Menephthah  I.,  and  it  appears 
from  the  inscriptions  that  a  special  priesthood  was  instituted  to 
pay  these  honors  to  Amenophis.  In  another  inscription  he  is 
joined  with  Amonre,  Phre  and  Osiris,  and  receives  a  libation  from 
the  priest  Amenemoph.  In  a  singular  painting  in  a  Theban  tomb2, 
he  is  represented  with  the  attributes  of  Sokari,  a  character  nearly 
identical  with  the  infernal  Osiris,  and  therefore  is  painted  black, 
and  in  this  character  he  is  found  depicted  in  the  interior  of  coffins3. 
In  these  posthumous  honors  his  wife  Aahmes-Nofreare  is  fre- 
quently joined  with  him.  All  these  circumstances  combined  lead 
us  to  suppose,  that  the  popular  tradition  in  Egypt  connected  Ame- 
nophis with  some  great  service  rendered  to  his  country  and  its 
religion.  He  may  be  regarded  as  a  second  founder  of  the  monarchy, 
having  replaced  it  in  the  pre-eminence  which  it  had  lost  by  the 
invasion  of  the  Hyksos. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  lists  Chebros  is  made  the  successor  of 
Amosis.  It  has  been  supposed  that  this  name  is  the  translation  of 
a  titular  shield,  converted  into  a  substantive  person.  Rosellini4 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  82. 
9  Ibid.  iii.  1,  98. 

3  Birch,  Gallery  of  Brit.  Mm  2,  p.  7 5. 

1  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  213,  note  (2).  Sharpe  refers  to  Chebros  the  last  shield 
in  the  lowest  line  of  the  central  division  of  the  chamber  of  Karnak,  which 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


conjectures  that  it  has  originated  from  Shefre,  the  title  of  Thoth- 
mes  I. ;  Bunsen1  from  Neb-rus-ra,  the  title  of  Amosis  ;  but  neither 
conjecture  is  satisfactory. 

The  next  in  succession  on  the  monuments  is  Thothmes  L  With 
him  appears  to  have  begun  the  construction  of  those  splendid 
edifices  at  Thebes,  which  still  attest  the  power  and  civilization  of 
Egypt  under  the  New  Monarchy.  We  have  seen  that  some  trifling 
remains  are  found  there  of  the  works  of  Sesortasen,  who  lived 
near  the  end  of  the  Old  Monarchy  ;  but  the  great  monuments  of 
Luxor,  Karnak  and  Medinet  Aboo  date  from  the  18th  dynasty. 
It  was  natural  that  Thebes,  which  had  been  the  refuge  of  the  Pha- 
raohs, while  the  Hyksos  held  their  court  at  Memphis,  or  some 
other  town  of  Lower  Egypt,  should  become  the  chief  capital  of 
the  restored  race  of  native  kings,  the  site  of  their  temples,  palaces 
and  tombs.  Thothmes  L  began  the  construction  of  the  immense 
pile  of  the  palace  of  Karnak.  About  the  centre  of  the  great 
inclosure  which  comprehended  the  buildings  in  their  final  extension, 
stood  two  obelisks,  inscribed  with  the  name  of  this  king2.  We 
know  from  other  instances  that  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the  Egyp- 
tians to  place  these  monuments  in  open  spaces,  without  connexion 
with  other  objects  ;  they  stood  before  the  entrance  of  temples  or 
palaces,  and  therefore  we  may  conclude  that  Thothmes,  if  he  did 
not  erect,  at  least  planned  some  edifice  to  which  these  obelisks 
were  an  appendage.  As  far  indeed  as  a  plan  can  be  made  out, 
amidst  the  ruins  by  which  this  whole  space  is  encumbered,  he 
actually  began  a  vast  square  of  buildings  which  Thothmes  III. 
completed3.    One  of  the  obelisks  is  still  standing,  the  other  has 

is  commonly  read  Nebtura.    See  Hierog.  of  Eg.  Soc.  pi.  96.     Sharpe,  His- 
tory of  Egypt,  plates,  No.  43,  4,  5. 
1  /Fgyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  82. 

■  See  Wilkinson's  great  Plan  of  Thebes,  Karnak,  D.,  vol.  i.  p.  145  of  this 
work. 

8  Rosolliui,  M.  Stor.  hi  1, 113,  123.    The  obelisk  is  figured,  If,  R.  tr.v.  xxx 

8* 


178 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


fallen,  and  is  broken  to  pieces.  They  were  in  size  rather  inferior 
to  the  obelisks  of  Luxor,  but  in  workmanship  nearly  equal.  Only 
the  central  Hue  of  the  inscription  belongs  to  Thothmes  I. ;  the 
lateral  lines  were  added  by  liainses  V.,  according  to  a  practice 
very  common  with  the  Egyptian  monarchs.  The  inscription  itself 
contains  no  historical  iuformation,  beyond  the  fact  of  a  victory 
over  the  nations  of  the  Nine  Bows,  who  are  commonly  understood  to 
be  the  Libyans,  and  the  erection  of  the  two  obelisks.  The  rest  is 
occupied  by  those  pompous  titles  of  divine  affinity  and  dominion, 
which  disappoint  the  decipherer  of  hieroglyphics,  when  he  hopes 
to  find  on  these  immortal  monuments  some  information  worthy 
of  the  pains  bestowed  in  preserving  their  legends  to  posterity. 

A  memorial  of  Thothmes  I.  is  also  found  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Nile  at  El-Assaseef,  a  valley  lying  to  the  north  of  the  Rame- 
seion1.  A  gate  of  red  granite,  of  very  fine  execution,  which  is 
still  standing  amidst  the  ruins,  exhibits  his  name  and  title  along 
with  those  of  his  successors.  Here  he  appears  in  conjunction  with 
an  Aahmes,  the  name  the  same  as  that  of  the  queen  of  Ameno- 
phis,  but  apparently  a  different  person.  She  is  described  as  wife 
and  sister  of  a  king,  and  as  ruler  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  It 
has  been  conjectured  that  she  was  the  sister  of  Amenophis,  and 
the  Amessis  of  the  lists,  in  which  she  immediately  follows  Ameno- 
phis, and  regent  in  the  reign  of  Thothmes  I2. 

The  monument  already  referred  to  as  recording  the  services  of 
a  military  officer,  who  had  served  in  several  successive  reigns,  men- 
tions wars  of  Thothmes  I.  in  Ethiopia,  and  also  in  the  land  of 
Naharaina?.  This  name  occurs  in  other  historical  monuments  of 
the  18th  dynasty.  As  Mesopotamia  is  called  in  Scripture4  Aram 
JVaharaim,  "  Syria  of  the  two  rivers,"  it  is  generally  supposed, 
that  the  Naharaina  of  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  is  Mesopotamia ; 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  132.  3  Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  79. 

8  Transactions  of  Roy.  Soc.  of  Lit  2nd  Series,  2,  325. 
4  Genes,  xxiv.  10. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


179 


and  it  is  not  incredible,  that  even  in  this  early  part  of  the  18th 
dynasty,  Egyptian  sovereigns  should  have  encountered  the  power 
of  the  Assyrians  on  this  field.  It  was  through  fear  of  the  power 
of  the  Assyrians,  "  who  were  then  predominant  in  Asia,"  that  the 
Hyksos,  when  driven  out  of  Egypt,  established  themselves  in 
Palestine.1  The  motive  of  their  first  king  Salatis,  for  fortifying 
the  eastern  frontier  of  Egypt  was,  that  he  foresaw  the  probability 
of  attacks  on  the  part  of  the  Assyrians.  That  the  dominion  of 
Thothmes  L  extended  as  high  up  the  Nile  as  the  island  of  Argo 
in  Upper  Nubia,  appears  from  his  name  having  been  found 
there2. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that,  according  to  Lepsius,  the 
Amense  of  Rosellini  and  Champollion  is  to  be  read  Set  Amen, 
and  that  she  was  a  daughter  of  Amosis  and  sister  of  Amenophis 
and  Thothmes  L  According  to  the  same  author,  after  the  death 
of  Thothmes  L,  the  functions  of  royalty  were  exercised  by 
Nemt  Amen,  the  sister  of  Thothmes  EL,  Nemt  Amen  being 
the  reading  which  he  has  adopted  for  the  Amenenthe  or  Ame- 
nenhe  of  Champollion  and  Rosellini.  The  singular  circumstance 
that  at  El-Assaseef 3  and  elsewhere  this  personage  is  represented 
with  the  dress  and  attributes  of  a  male,  yet  that  feminine  prefixes 
are  used  throughout  the  inscriptions,  has  been  explained  bv  the 
supposition  that  she  exercised  sovereignty  in  her  brother's  name. 
That  she  was  the  daughter  of  Thothmes  I.  appears  from  the  obe- 
lisk before  the  granite  sanctuary  at  Karnak4  ;  that  she  was  the 
sister  of  Thothmes  III.,  among  other  evidence  from  a  statue  in 
the  British  Museum,  in  which  her  name,  or  rather  title,  appears 
to  have  existed,  although  subsequently  chiselled  out,  and  she  is 
designated  as  such6.    The  cause  of  this  mutilation  can  only  be 

1  See  before,  p.  154.  3  Vol.  L  p.  16.  8  Vol.  L  p.  132. 

4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  227     Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  P.  2,  p.  78. 
6  The  title  exists,  apparently  without  mutilatioD,  on  the  pyramHion  of 
the  fallen  obelisk  of  Karnak,  where  Amunra  appears,  crowning  Nemt 


ISO 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


conjectured  ;  the  most  plausible  supposition  is,  that  her  regency 
was  either  usurped  or  exercised  with  harshness,  and  her  memory 
obnoxious  to  her  brother  or  to  the  Egyptian  people.  Sometimes  the 
name  of  Thothmes  II.,  sometimes  of  Thothmes  III.,  has  been  sub- 
stituted for  hers. 

The  dominion  of  Teiothmes  II.  appears  to  have  been  not  less 
extensive  than  that  of  his  predecessor.  His  name  has  been  found 
at  Gebel-el-Birkel,  the  Napata  of  the  Romans1.  In  his  reign  we 
first  find  mention  of  the  Royal  Son  or  Prince  of  Ethiopia, 
which  continues  to  appear  on  monuments  till  the  reign  of  Setei- 
Menephthah2,  and  from  which  we  may  infer  that  during  this 
period  Ethiopia  formed  a  viceregal  government  dependent  upon 
Egypt.  The  viceroy  appears  to  have  been  of  the  blood  royal  of 
Egypt.  We  have  scarcely  any  record  of  the  facts  of  Thothmes  the 
Second's  reign.  Of  the  state  of  the  arts  at  this  period,  however, 
there  is  extant  a  most  remarkable  specimen  in  the  great  obelisks 
of  Karnak.  They  were  erected  by  Nemt  Amen  in  the  same  cen- 
tral court  of  that  pile  of  buildings,  in  which  the  smaller  obelisks  of 
Thothmes  I.  stood,  but  far  surpass  them  in  magnitude  and  beauty. 
One  of  them  is  still  standing ;  it  is  of  rose  granite  and  ninety  feet 
in  length.  Of  its  execution  Rosellini  thus  speaks3: — "All  the 
figures  and  the  hieroglyphics  are  delineated  with  such  purity  and 
freedom,  cut  with  such  art,  and  relieved  within  the  excavated  part 
with  such  perfection  and  precision  of  outline,  that  we  are  lost  in 
astonishment  in  contemplating  them,  and  wonder  how  it  has  been 
possible  to  work  this  hardest  of  materials,  so  that  every  figure 
seems  rather  to  have  been  impressed  with  a  seal  than  engraven 
with  a  chisel.  The  fragments  of  the  companion  obelisk  which  are 
lying  on  the  ground  may  be  handled  ;  those  parts  which  represent 

Amen,  designated  as  a  "daughter  of  the  king."  It  probably  escaped  muti- 
lation from  its  elevated  position.    Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit.  Mus.  pi.  32. 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  &  0.  1,  52,  note.  2  Lepsius,  Einl.  1,  p.  820,  nole  \ 

3  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xxxl-iv. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


181 


animals  in  particular  are  treated  with  such  accuracy  of  design  and 
finish  of  execution,  as  not  to  be  surpassed  by  the  finest  cameos  of 
the  Greeks."  The  pyramidion  represents  Amunre  seated,  and 
placing  his  hand  on  the  head  of  the  king,  whom  he  thus  inaugu- 
rates. 'Hi ere  is  a  peculiarity  in  the  arrangement  of  the  hiero- 
glyphic;!! inscriptions.  The  central  column  is  occupied  by  the 
customary  form  of  the  dedication  ;  but  the  two  lateral  columns, 
which  in  some  obelisks,  as  that  of  Heliopolis,  are  left  vacant,  in 
others  are  filled  by  inscriptions  of  subsequent  sovereigns,  are  here 
occupied  more  than  half  way  down,  with  repetitions  of  the  figure 
of  Amnnre  on  one  side,  on  the  other  of  the  dedicating  sovereign, 
who  offers  to  the  god  wine,  ointment,  milk,  perfumes  and  sacred 
insignia.  The  dedication  and  offering  are  usually  in  the  name  of 
Nemt  Amen,  but  in  some  of  the  compartments  the  youthful 
Thothmes  III.  appears,  bringing  an  offering  to  the  god.  The 
name  of  Thothmes  I.  is  also  found,  but  he  is  only  referred  to  as 
having  begun  the  buildings  near  which  the  obelisks  were  erected. 
Thothmes  II.  nowhere  appears1,  whence  it  seems  probable  that 
Nemt  Amen  set  them  up  during  the  time  in  which  she  exercised 
the  regency  on  behalf  of  her  younger  brother  Thothmes  III.  The 
name  of  a  much  later  sovereign,  Setei  Menephthah,  is  twice  found, 
but  the  state  of  the  stone  plainly  shows  that  it  has  been  subsequently 
introduced.  The  name  of  Nemt  Amen  has  escaped  the  mutilation 
which  it  has  generally  undergone,  perhaps  owing  to  the  beauty  of 
the  monument.  The  fallen  obelisk  closely  resembles  its  com- 
panion, in  the  subject  of  the  inscription  and  the  figures  of  the 
lateral  compartments. 

The  reign  of  Thothmes  III.  is  one  of  the  most  glorious  in  the 
annals  of  the  18th  dynasty.  The  earliest  part  of  it  appears  to 
have  been  passed  under  the  tutelage  of  Nemt  Amen,  whose  name 
is  found  on  an  inscription  at  Wadi  Magara  of  the  sixteenth  year  of 


1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  164. 


182 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


his  reign1.  The  limits  of  the  dominion  of  Egypt  on  the  side  of 
Arabia  were  therefore  not  reduced;  Surabit-el-Kadim,  between 
Ain  Moosa  and  Mount  Sinai,  contains  his  name,  along  with  those 
of  Cheops  and  others  of  the  age  of  the  Pyramids2.  To  the  south 
we  find  memorials  of  this  monarch  at  Semneh,  a  little  beyond  the 
Second  Cataract.  Semneh  appears  to  have  been  in  this  age  the 
frontier  town  of  the  Egyptian  dominions  towards  Ethiopia,  and  as 
such  to  have  been  fortified  with  great  care  and  skill3.  In  later 
times,  after  the  occupation  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians,  Elephan- 
tine became  the  frontier.  The  traces  of  the  presence  of  sovereigns 
of  the  18th  dynasty  further  to  the  south,  as  in  the  island  of  Argo 
and  at  Napata,  are  only  occasional,  and  do  not  prove  a  permanent 
occupation ;  but  between  the  First  and  Second  Cataracts  the  fre- 
quent recurrence  of  temples  and  the  remains  of  towns  indicate  that 
this  region  formed  virtually  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Egypt. 
Here  too,  as  appears  from  inscriptions  on  the  rocks,  the  earliest 
rise  of  the  Nile  was  watched  and  recorded4 ;  in  later  times  this  was 
registered  by  the  Nilometer  of  Elephantine,  when  that  was  the 
beginning  of  Egypt.  The  remains  at  Semneh  are  partly  of  the 
reign  of  Thothmes  III.  and  partly  of  Amunoph  II.  and  III.,  but 
they  exhibit  only  acts  of  adoration,  and  throw  no  light  on  political 
events,  except  that  the  absence  of  the  name  of  Nemt  Amen  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  these  inscriptions  belong  to  the  later  part 
of  his  reign. 

Following  the  course  of  the  Nile  downward  from  the  Second 
Cataract,  we  find  frequent  memorials  of  Thothmes  III.  The 
temple  of  Amada  was  begun  by  him  and  completed  by  Amunoph 
II.  and  Thothmes  IV.    He  is  represented  in  the  act  of  dedicating 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2,  320.  The  earliest  date  of  his  reign,  the  fifth 
year  is  found  in  a  papyrus  of  the  Museum  of  Turin,  the  oldest  known  with  a 
precise  date.    (Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  Egypte,  p.  311.) 

2  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  407. 

8  VoL  i.  p.  194,  note  s.  4  Vol.  i.  p.  18,  note  8 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


183 


a  temple  and  the  lands  annexed  to  it  to  the  god  Phre1.  At  Ombi 
he  appears  on  the  lintels  of  a  gateway,  preserved  when  the  temple 
was  rebuilt  by  the  Ptolemies.  He  is  dedicating  the  building  to 
the  god  Sebek  or  the  crocodile,  and  Nenit  Amen  is  joiued  with 
him  in  this  act2.  A  fragment  bearing  his  title  was  found  by  the 
Tuscan  Expedition  at  Edfoo,  which  is  also  of  the  Ptolemaic  times. 
At  Eilithyia  his  name  is  also  traced,  and  joined  as  at  Ombi  with 
that  of  Nemt  Amen. 

His  most  magnificent  works,  however,  were  those  which  adorned 
Thebes,  many  of  which  are  still  extant.  There  is  a  mutilated 
obelisk  in  the  Atmeidan  or  Hippodrome  of  Constantinople  brought 
from  Egypt  by  one  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  and  which  is  of  the 
reign  of  Thothmes  III3.  Probably  it  stood  in  the  central  court 
of  Karnak.  At  first  sight  the  shields  which  enclose  the  royal  titles 
might  seem  to  belong  to  some  other  sovereign  or  even  sovereigns, 
for  the  signs  in  all  are  different.  But  they  all  contain  the  three 
elements4  which  form  the  title  of  Thothmes  III.  on  the  tablet  of 
Abydos  and  elsewhere — the  disk,  the  crenellated  parallelogram  and 
the  scarabseus,  and  therefore  it  is  probable  that  the  additional 
signs  do  not  indicate  a  different  sovereign,  but  only  those  variations 
which  we  know  to  exist  in  the  titles  of  kings  whose  identity  is 
unquestionable.  There  is  only  one  circumstance  which  gives  this 
monument  an  historical  significance ;  among  the  usual  lofty  titles 
of  royalty,  mention  is  twice  made  of  the  "  Land  of  Naharaim5," 
and  in  the  second  instance  the  figure  of  a  boat  and  the  character 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iil  1,  p.  117.  He  calls  this  monarch  throughout 
Thothmes  IV. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  di  Culto,  tav.  xxviii. 

8  It  is  figured  from  a  drawing  of  Mr.  Cory  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Literature,  2,  228. 

4  A  fourth,  the  waving  line  or  n,  is  often  found,  always  according  to 
Champollion-Figeac  (Univers,  p.  309)  in  the  hieratic  writing. 

6  CoL  1,  bottom.  Col.  3. 


184 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


for  waters  lead  to  the  supposition  that  a  naval  expedition  or  a 
naval  combat  is  intended.  The  analysis  of  the  hieroglyphics,  how- 
ever, is  too  imperfect  to  afford  us  exact  information,  and  there  is 
little  probability  in  the  supposition  that  Thothmes  TIL  built  a  fleet 
on  the  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  so  ascended  the  Euphrates 
to  attack  the  Babylonians1.  The  obelisk  which  Sixtus  V.  raised 
up  and  placed  before  St.  John  Lateran  at  Rome,  the  loftiest  and 
most  perfect  in  its  execution  of  all  that  are  extant,  was  set  up  in 
the  reign  of  Thothmes  III.,  and  in  its  central  column  of  hiero- 
glyphics bears  only  his  titles ;  Thothmes  IV.  added  the  lateral 
columns.  This  act  of  the  dedication  of  obelisks  is  represented  on 
one  of  the  walls  of  the  palace  of  Karnak,  on  such  a  scale  that  the 
inscriptions  on  them  can  be  read2.  They  are  not  identical  with 
those  on  any  obelisk  now  known,  but  have  a  general  analogy  to 
that  of  St.  John  Lateran.  One  records  the  erection  of  two,  the 
other  of  three,  or  it  may  be  an  indefinite  number  of  obelisks, 
which  are  said  to  be  of  granite  and  resplendent  with  gold  ;  from 
which  it  has  been  concluded  that  the  pyramidion  may  have  been 
surmounted  with  a  golden  ornament,  or  gilded  as  many  portions 
of  Egyptian  architecture  are  known  to  have  been3. 

One  of  the  most  instructive  memorials  of  the  reign  of  Thothmes 
III.  is  a  painting  in  a  tomb  at  Qoorneh,  copied  by  Mr.  Hoskins  in 
hirs  Travels  in  Ethiopia4.  It  represents  four  principal  nations  of  the 
earth,  bringing  their  tribute  to  the  king,  who  is  seated  on  his 
throne5.    Two  obelisks  of  red  granite,  beside  which  the  various 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2,  223. 

a  They  were  first  published  by  Mr.  Burton  and  repeated  from  him  by 
Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  185,  187  ;  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  251. 

3  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  3,  237. 

4  P.  327,  foil.  See  also  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  p.  234.  Man- 
ners and  Customs,  vol.  1,  pi.  iv.  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

6  Ipse,  sedens  niveo  eandentis  limine  Phcebi, 

Dona  recognoscit  populorum,  aptatque  superbis 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


185 


objects  are  deposited  by  the  bearers,  and  registered  by  the  royal 
scribes,  probably  mark  the  great  court  of  the  palace  of  Karnak  as 
the  scene  of  the  ceremony.  The  tribute-bearers  are  arranged  in 
five  lines,  the  first  and  the  third  appearing  to  form  part  of  one  pro- 
cession. A  few  negroes,  having  all  the  characteristic  physiognomy 
of  the  race,  as  well  as  a  black  color,  are  intermingled  with  men 
of  the  same  red-brown  hue  as  the  Egyptians.  They  bring  only 
natural  productions1,  blocks  of  ebony,  tusks  of  ivory,  strings  of 
colored  stones,  ostrich-eggs  and  feathers,  a  tree,  gold  and  silver  in 
rings,  bags  and  ingots,  and  a  variety  of  animals — apes,  leopards, 
an  oryx  and'a  giraffe,  with  cattle  and  dogs2.  The  name  of  their 
land  has  been  read  Fount  or  Phunt,  but  this  affords  us  no  infor- 
mation, as  it  corresponds  with  no  known  name  in  geography. 

Postibus;  incedunt  victe  longo  ordine  gentes, 
Quam  varise  Unguis  habitu  tam  vestis  et  armis. 
Hie  Nomadum  genus  et  diseinctos  Mulciber  Afros 
Finxerat.    Euphrates  ibat  jam  mollior  undis, 
Extremique  hominum  Morini,  Rhenusqne  bicornis, 
Indomitique  Dahse,  et  pontem  indignatus  Araxes. 

Virg.  JEn.  viii.  720. 
What  had  become  in  Virgil's  time  merely  poetical  ornament  had  been  a 
fact  in  the  history  of  the  Asiatic  and  Egyptian  monarchies.    The  pomps  of 
the  Ptolemies  (Athen.  lib.  5,  32)  were  an  imitation  of  the  real  tribute-bear- 
ing processions  under  the  Pharaohs. 

1  Her.  3,  97.     A;dt»nes  ol  rrpoaovpoi  A 
ayivzovoi  6vo  ^uivixas  airvpov  ^pvaiov  koX  6ir)K0<s'ius  (paXayyag  ifi'ivov  Kill  irivrc  xaiSas 

AlBtorras  *«i  iXtyai/ros  dSovras  fteyaXovi  tiKoai.  The  representation  of  the  tri- 
bute brought  to  the  Great  King  at  Persepolis,  exhibits,  besides  vases,  articles 
of  dress  and  ornaments,  also  horses,  camels,  oxen,  mules  and  sheep.  (Nie- 
buhr,  Voyage  ii.  plates  22,  23.) 

a  Among  the  objects  brougbt  in  the  procession  described  by  Athenams, 
v.  were  "  26  Indian  cattle,  8  Ethiopian,  a  large  white  bear,  14  leopards, 
16  panthers,  4  lynxes,  1  camelopard  and  1  rhinoceros."  There  were  also 
2400  dogs,  some  Indian,  some  Hyrcanian,  some  Molossian,  and  of  other 
breeds. 


180 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Those  of  the  third  line  are  specifically  called  "  Nations  of  the 
South."  From  the  products  which  they  bring  they  are  evidently 
inhabitants  of  the  African  continent,  and  of  a  wide  range  of  coun- 
try, including  the  Libyans  on  the  west,  the  Nubians  on  the  south, 
and  the  Ethiopians  of  the  deeper  interior.  The  color  of  the  men 
of  the  second  line  is  not  different  from  that  of  the  Egyptians  and 
Libyans,  but  their  hair  is  gathered  iu  curls  on  the  front,  and  divided 
into  two  long  locks  behind,  one  of  which  falls  on  the  shoulder. 
They  wear,  like  the  Libyans,  only  a  short  kilt  round  the  middle; 
but  while  the  Libyan  is  white  with  a  colored  border,  that  of  the 
third  line  is  of  various  checks  and  patterns,  closely  resembling  the 
drapery  of  the  foreigners  who  are  seen  in  the  tomb  of  Nevothph1. 
Their  offerings  are  vases  of  silver  and  gold  of  graceful  form  and 
elaborate  workmanship,  and  others  which  resemble,  if  the  repre- 
sentations can  be  relied  upon,  the  fictile  vases  of  the  Greeks  and 
Etruscans.  Their  name,  which  is  written  Kufa  or  Kafa,  affords 
little  clue  to  their  locality,  but  their  resemblance  to  the  Egyptians 
in  color  and  the  advanced  state  of  the  arts  among  them,  indicated 
by  the  vases  which  they  bring,  lead  us  to  conclude  that  they  must 
belong  to  the  coast  of  Palestine,  which  received  colonies  at  an 
early  age  from  Egypt2.  The  gold  and  silver  vases  would  suit  well 
with  the  skill  in  the  toreutic  arts  attributed  by  Homer  to  the  Sido- 
nians3.  The  Libyans,  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  have  naked  feet, 
but  these  have  buskins,  reaching  half-way  up  the  leg,  of  the  same 
pattern  with  their  kilts.  The  third  company  of  tribute-bearers, 
forming  the  fourth  line  of  the  picture,  are  men  of  white  complexion, 
with  reddish  hair  and  beards.  They  wear  long  garments  of  white 
cloth  sleeved  to  the  wrists,  with  the  addition  of  gloves  reaching  to 
the  elbow ;  their  heads  are  covered  with  a  close-fitting  cap,  and 

1  P.  142  of  this  vol. 

9  Gen.  x.  14.    But  the  resemblance  of  Kufa  and  Caphthor  is  too  slight  to 
found  an  argument  of  identity. 
8  II.  ip.  741.  Od.  o.  424. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


187 


everything  indicates  that  they  belong  to  a  colder  climate  than  any 
of  the  others.  Some  of  them  are  armed  with  bows  and  arrows, 
and  others  lead  a  chariot  and  horses.  Their  tribute  consists  of 
ring  money  of  gold  and  silver,  colored  woods,  precious  stones  and 
vases,  some  of  which  resemble  those  brought  by  the  Kufa,  but 
which  are  in  general  of  less  beautiful  form  and  less  elaborate  work- 
manship. Their  name  is  Roi-n-no  or  Lud-u-nu,  but  this  gives  us 
no  precise  information  of  their  locality,  all  comparison  with  known 
geographical  names  being  merely  conjectural,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
fix  on  any  country  whose  products  shall  correspond  with  all  the 
articles  of  the  tribute.  The  long  garments  and  gloves,  with  the 
chariot  and  horses1,  would  suit  Northern  Media,  or  the  regions 
near  the  southern  shore  of  the  Caspian  ;  but  one  of  the  men  car- 
ries a  tusk  of  ivory,  and  leads  an  elephant  and  a  bear.  The  range 
of  latitude  in  which  the  elephant  can  live  has  certainly  ascended 
higher  to  the  north  in  ancient  times  than  at  present,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  that  so  great  a  change  has  taken  place  between 
the  times  of  Thothmes  III.  and  that  of  the  commencement  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  zoology  of  the  ancient  world,  as  that  elephants 
should  be  found  in  Asia  Minor.  In  the  fifth  line  women,  both  of 
this  nation  and  of  the  people  of  the  South,  are  introduced,  leading 
their  infant  children,  or  carrying  them  in  their  arms,  or  on  their 
shoulders,  or  in  a  basket,  fastened  by  a  strap  to  the  forehead,  a 
custom  which  still  prevails  among  the  tribes  which  border  the  Nile2. 

If  there  could  be  any  doubt  that  we  have  here  the  representation 
of  a  real  scene  and  the  evidence  of  a  dominion  extending  from 
Nubia  to  Northern  Asia,  no  such  doubt  can  attach  to  the  monu- 
ment which  is  known  as  the  Statistical  Table  of  Karnak3. 

1  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2,  335,  thinks  they  are  the  Cappadocians, 
called  also  Leuco-Syrians  or  fair  Syrians.  This  is  not  improbable.  They 
were  Safinoves  imroawauv  (Dionys.  Perieg.  974). 

a  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  236,  note. 

8  Hieroglyphics  of  the  Eg.  Soc.  41.   Lepsius,  Auswahl,  pi.  xiii.    I  quote 


183 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


This  document  is  of  the  reign  of  Thothmes  III.,  and  the  inscrip- 
tion placed  above  it  declares  its  object  to  be  to  record  the  victories 
of  this  sovereign.  It  divides  itself  into  three  distinct  portions  by 
the  dates  29th1,  30th,  and  31st  years.  As  it  is  mutilated  near  the 
beginning,  it  is  not  clear  in  what  land  the  monarch  was  when 
the  record  of  his  exploits  begins,  but  from  the  subsequent  occur- 
rence of  the  name  of  the  Tahai8  and  the  traces  of  the  obliterated 
name,  it  seems  probable  that  they  are  the  people  first  referred  to. 
It  is  conjectured  that  they  are  the  Dahae,  a  nomad  nation  on  the 
northern  frontier  of  Persia3,  or  the  Taochi  mentioned  by  Xenophon4 
as  living  between  Armenia  and  Pontus,  and  maintaining  them- 
selves in  independence  of  the  Great  King.  In  this  case,  however, 
they  cannot  have  brought  tribute  of  frankincense  ;  and  the  sign 
which  has  been  so  explained  must  represent  some  other  object. 
IToney  and  wine  are  also  meutioned  among  their  tributes,  and  we 
know  from  Strabo5  that  the  vine  nourished  even  as  far  north  as 
Hyrcania,  and  that  these  countries  were  very  productive  of  honey. 
Their  name  occurs  frequently  in  monuments  recording  the  victories 
and  expeditions  of  the  Egyptian  kings.  Two  other  nations,  one 
called  Vava,  the  other  Arutu,  are  mentioned  in  the  same  inscription, 
and  men,  ingots  of  the  precious  metals,  copper,  iron  and  lead  with 
other  metals  which  cannot  be  precisely  ascertained,  618  bulls,  3636 
goats,  corn,  are  all  enumerated  among  the  spoils  or  tribute  of  the 
land6.     This  expedition  of  the  29th  year  is  called  the  5th,  in 

the  former  for  the  facility  of  reference,  as  the  column^  are  numbered  across 
as  well  as  vertically.    The  cony  of  Lepsius,  however,  is  more  exact. 
1  Col.  Z  b.  2  Col.  V  x. 

3  Herod.  1,  125.  From  their  name  Ajo<,  that  of  Davus,  borne  by  slaves, 
is  supposed  to  be  derived,  as  Geta  from  another  nomad  tribe. 

4  Xen.  Anab.  4,  7,  1.  5,  o,  17.  From  Steph.  Byz.  s.  v.  T.5  >ym,  it  seems 
probable  they  were  the  same  people  as  the  Dai  or  Tiii.  (Birch,  Tr.  Roy. 
Soc.  Lit.  2,  330.)  5  Geogr.  B.  2,  p.  73. 

0  The  cattle  enumerated  may  be  regarded  as  contributions  for  the  use  of 
the  army,  while  serving  in  the  country. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


189 


reference  to  some  enumeration  of  which  the  earlier  part  is  want- 
ing. 

In  the  30th  year  of  his  reign1,  and  his  sixth  expedition,  the  king 
is  said  to  have  been  in  the  land  of  the  Rotnno  or  Ludennu,  the 
same  people  who  appear  in  the  last  line  of  the  painting  at  Thebes 
already  described,  and  to  have  taken  hostages  of  them  and  their 
children.  Now  in  the  painting  of  the  Theban  tomb,  we  have  seen 
men  and  women  of  the  Rotnno  nation,  led  with  their  children  into 
the  presence  of  the  Egyptian  scribes.  The  men  are  not  armed,  yet 
they  are  not  bound,  and  therefore  it  is  probable  that  they  came  as 
hostages,  though  it  would  be  too  much  to  infer  that  these  are  the 
very  hostages  spoken  of  in  the  tablet.  Forty-two  chariots  also, 
"  decorated  with  gold,  silver,  and  painting2,"  are  among  the  spoil 
of  the  Rotnno  ;  and  in  the  procession  in  the  tomb,  we  have  already 
described  a  richly  adorned  chariot,  followed  by  a  yoke  of  horses, 
which  may  be  considered  as  the  representative  of  a  larger  number. 

In  the  31st  year  and  on  the  3rd  day  of  the  month  Pachon3, 
another  expedition  is  recorded,  in  which  mention  is  made  of  490 
captives,  who  were  employed,  as  far  as  the  imperfect  interpretation 
of  the  inscription  enables  us  to  judge,  in  felling  and  carrying  tim- 
ber, and  seemed  to  have  belonged  to  the  same  nation  of  the  Rotnno. 
The  results  of  the  expedition  were  also  the  capture,  or  payment  in 
tribute,  of  104  cows,  172  bulls,  4622  goats,  and  masses  of  iron  and 
lead4.  These  contributions  suit  well  the  countries  between  the 
Caspian  and  the  Euxine,  which  abound  in  metallic  products.  The 
wood  might  be  carried  to  some  branch  of  the  Euphrates,  and  thence 
floated  to  Mesopotamia  or  Babylonia.  The  north-eastern  part  of 
Asia  Minor  is  also  rich  in  minerals,  especially  iron;  but  wood 
would  be  conveyed  thence  with  difficulty  to  any  point  at  which  it 
could  be  serviceable  to  the  Egyptians,  who,  as  far  as  we  know, 
never  launched  a  fleet  upon  the  Euxine. 

1  Col.  S  e.  2  Col.  Q  b,  c  d. 

8  See  voL  i.  p.  277.  4  CoL  0. 


190 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  following  lines  on  the  tablet,  owing  to  the  mutilation  of  the 
lower  part,  are  very  obscure.  The  21st  (Lepsius)  begins  with 
"  land  of  Nenii1"  followed  by  the  mention  of  setting  up  a  stele  in 
Naharaina2.  The  form  of  this  tablet,  as  represented  in  the  inscrip- 
tion, exactly  corresponds  with  those  cut  on  the  rock  at  Nahr-el- 
Kelb,  bearing  the  image  of  Rameses  III.  The  Assyrians  continued 
the  same  custom,  and  two  of  their  kings  placed  a  stele  beside  those 
of  Rameses  at  Nahr-el-Kelb.  Darius  left  a  similar  record  of  his 
expedition  against  the  Scythians,  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosporus3. 
Nenii  is  generally  understood  to  be  Nineveh,  the  capital  of  Assyria, 
and  the  mention  of  Naharaina,  which  immediately  follows,  favors 
this  supposition.  The  further  prosecution  of  the  researches  into 
the  remains  discovered  at  Khorsabad  and  Nemroud  may  throw 
light  -on  the  relations  between  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia.  Tablets 
of  ivory  in  Egyptian  style  have  been  found  here4,  one  of  them 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  an  Egyptian  king  or  god  not  known 
from  other  sources.  Such  small  and  portable  antiquities  cannot  be 
received  as  proofs  of  the  occupation  of  a  country,  and  as  far  as  we 
can  judge,  they  belong  to  a  much  later  period  of  history  than  the 
18th  dynasty. 

The  next  column5  relates  to  the  land  of  the  Tahae,  and  makes 

1  Hieroglyphics  of  Egyptian  Society,  42,  Col.  X  b.  There  is  no  letter 
answering  to  u. 

a  The  character  for  stele  is  hardly  recognizable  in  Wilkinson's  copy,  but  is 
more  distinct  in  Lepsius,  taf.  xii.  1.  21. 

8  Her.  4,  87.  Onriadf/evos  Si  xai  tov  Hoarropov  crrfjXas  t  a  r  r\  a  t  Svo  £t'  aurcS 
Xi'0iu  Acvkui1,  ii/rafiMv  ypa^iara,  eg  piv  riff  '  Acaipia,  is  Si  tijp  'KAXr/i/i<c«,  hhti  iravra 

Soaxep  riye.  These  stelce  were  not  columns,  as  the  commentators  usually 
render  them,  but  tablets.  Hence  the  use  which  the  Byzantines  made  of 
them  to  build  an  altar.  I  see  no  reason  to  suppose  that  such  inscriptions 
marked  the  frontiers  of  an  empire  exclusively.  They  were  naturally  placed 
beside  high  roads  that  they  might  be  conspicuous 

4  Layard's  Nineveh,  Plates,  89.  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit  2nd  series, 
vol.  3.    The  name  is  read  Aubnu-ra.  6  V.  PL  42. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


191 


mention  of  260  mares1,  which  had  been  brought  thence  with  gold 
and  silver,  both  unwrought  and  in  the  shape  of  vases.  That  which 
follows  enumerates  cattle,  among  the  rest  5323  goats,  and  there- 
fore, though  the  name  of  the  people  is  not  mentioned,  they  are 
probably  the  same  who  in  a  preceding  column  are  said  to  have 
furnished  a  very  large  number  of  goats,  namely  the  Rotnno.  The 
next  column3  introduces  a  people  not  hitherto  mentioned,  but 
whose  name  frequently  occurs  in  inscriptions.  From  the  ambi- 
guity of  the  first  letter,  which  stands  equally  for  L  or  R  in  the 
phonetic  alphabet,  it  is  doubtful  whether  .it  should  be  read  Lema- 
nen  or  Remanen.  Those  who  adopt  the  former  suppose  the  inha- 
bitants of  Lebanon  to  be  meant,  and  derive  an  argument  in  favor 
of  their  opinion  from  the  circumstance  that  they  are  elsewhere 
represented  as  felling  trees3,  supposed  to  be  the  cedars  for  which 
this  mountain  was  celebrated.  There  is  nothing  in  the  form  of  the 
trees,  however,  which  particularly  refers  them  to  the  cedars  of 
Lebanon,  and  in  the  inscription  given  by  Rosellini,  mention  seems 
to  be  made  of  building  boats  on  a  river,  which  does  not  accord 
with  the  geography  of  Lebanon.  Nor  do  we  know  that  Lebanon 
was  ever  used  as  the  name  of  a  nation.  Armenia,  which  has  been 
suggested,  would  suit  the  name  if  read  Remanen,  and  also  the 
operation  of  felling  the  trees.  The  ample  clothing  of  the  Remanen 
also  indicates  a  more  northern  climate  than  that  of  Syria.  The 
following  column4  makes  mention  of  the  land  of  Sankar  or  Sankal, 
and  Babel  or  Baber5;  the  former  of  which  is  supposed  to  mean 
Singara,  and  Bebel,  Babylon.  Singara,  Sinjar,  is  a  town  near 
Edessa,  inhabited  by  a  tribe  of  Arabs,  whom  Pliny  calls  Raetavi  or 
Praetavi6.    In  connexion  with  both  these  countries  a  tribute  is 

1  Phonetically  written  sescm,  with  the  determinative  of  the  species.  See 
vol.  i.  p.  167. 

2  Col.  Ti.  8  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xlvi.  «  Col.  S£ 
6  Mutilated  in  Lepsius'  copy,  but  preserved  in  Wilkinson's. 

H.  N.  5,  21.  Steph.  Byz,  Liyyapa. 


192 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


spoken  of,  culled  Chcsebt ;  from  the  determinative  character  sub- 
joined to  it,  it  appears  to  be  a  metal,  but  Babylonia  was  not  a 
metalliferous  region,  and  it  cannot  be  one  of  the  precious  metals, 
the  hieroglyphics  for  which  are  well  known1.  The  next  column3 
contains  the  enumeration  of  contributions  of  gold  and  silver,  in 
vessels  and  in  bulk,  and  near  the  bottom,  of  stone  and  wood.  The 
lower  part  of  the  column  is  mutilated,  but  as  the  next  begins  with 
the  word  Naharaina,  followed  by  the  same  group  of  characters  as 
in  Col.  X.,  it  is  thought  that  the  stone  and  wood  were  designed 
for  the  erection  of  a  stele  in  Mesopotamia.  The  land  of  the  Taha3 
is  again  mentioned  in  Col.  0 ;  in  connexion  with  the  34th  year  of 
the  king  and  military  operations  in  the  land  of  Jukasa,  conjectured 
to  be  Oxiana3,  a  doubtful  appropriation,  since  it  does  not  appear 
that  Oxus  is  an  Oriental  name. 

The  remaining  columns  contain  in  the  main  only  a  repetition  of 
tribute  similar  to  the  preceding,  with  a  mention  of  some  articles 
which  it  is  difficult  to  identify.  We  find  also  a  people  called  Asi, 
conjectured  to  be  those  of  Is,  since  they  appear  to  bring  bitumen, 
which  the  springs  of  that  place  produce4.  In  others  suits  of  armor 
are  mentioned,  brought  by  the  Kkaru,  who  appear  from  other 
inscriptions  to  have  inhabited  Syria.  When  complete,  the  whole 
has  comprehended  at  least  fifty-five  columns. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  is  the  identical  tablet  which 
the  priests  showed  and  expounded  to  Germanicus,  when  he  visited 
Thebes6.    Having  mentioned  the  record  of  the  victorious  expedi- 

1  The  character  which  Mr.  Birch  reads  utcn  and  Dr.  Hincks  mn  (rnna) 
appears  to  nie  to  represent  a  coil  of  metallic  rod  or  wire.  The  word  chesebt 
occurs  thrice  in  this  line,  twice  accompanied  by  this  character,  once,  before 
Beber  or  Bebel,  without  it  This  seems  to  indicate  two  different  forms 
under  which  it  was  contributed. 

3  HierogL  of  Egypt.  Soc.  pi.  42,  Col.  R.  Lepsius,  1.  26.  In  Ri  Wilkinson's 
copy  lias  400,  Lepsius  301. 

3  Birch,  u.  s.  p.  350.  4  Herod.  1,  179, 

6  The  expression  "structis  molibus"  shows  that  obelisks  were  not  meant. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


193 


tions  of  Rameses,  Tacitus  proceeds :  "  There  were  also  read  the 
tributes  levied  on  the  nations,  the  weight  of  gold  and  silver,  the 
number  of  arms  and  horses,  ivory  and  perfumes  as  gifts  to  the 
temples,  and  the  stores  of  corn  and  other  useful  products  which 
each  nation  paid  ;  not  less  magnificent  than  are  now  enjoined  by 
Parthian  violence  or  Roman  power1."  The  name  of  Thothmes  is 
not  mentioned  by  Tacitus,  and  Rameses  has  been  spoken  of  imme- 
diately before ;  but  his  words  do  not  necessarily  imply  that  the 
tablet  of  tribute  and  the  record  of  victories  related  to  the  same 
sovereign. 

The  Tablet  of  Karnak  is  strictly  an  historical  and  statistical 
document.  It  does  not  deal  in  vague  ascriptions  of  a  world-wide 
dominion  ;  its  dates  are  precise,  including  the  month  and  the  day 
as  well  as  the  year  of  the  king  ;  and  though  we  may  be  unable  to 
identify  the  countries  named,  the  exactness  with  which  they  are 
enumerated,  with  the  weights  and  numbers  of  the  objects  which 
they  bring,  proves  that  we  have  before  us  an  authentic  record,  at 
least  of  the  tribute  enjoined  upon  the  nations. 

Another  remarkable  monument  of  the  age  of  Thothmes  III.  is 
the  chamber,  on  the  walls  of  which  he  is  represented  making  offer- 
ings to  sixty  of  his  predecessors.  It  has  been  already  described 
among  the  documents  of  Egyptian  history,  and  it  is  certainly  one 
of  the  most  important  of  them,  though  it  has  by  no  means  received 
a  satisfactory  explanation  in  all  its  parts.  His  name  appears  to 
have  been  held  in  high  veneration  by  posterity,  and  is  found  on  a 
great  number  of  scarabaei  and  amulets,  many  of  which  were  pro- 
bably engraved  in  subsequent  times2.  Rosellini  and  others  call 
him  Mceris,  and  suppose  him  to  have  been  the  author  of  tbe  Lake 
of  Fyoum  and  the  other  works  connected  with  it.    The  epithet 

Strabo  (p.  816)  says  these  records  were  inscribed  on  obelisks,  and  moreover 
places  these  obelisks  among  the  royal  sepulchres. 

1  AnnaL  2,  60. 

2  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  56,  note. 
vol.  n.  9 


194 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Maire,  beloved  of  Re,  is  found  connected  with  his  name ;  but  we 
have  seen  reason  to  doubt  whether  the  name  of  Moeris  belongs 
historically  to  any  king  of  Egypt,  and  the  works  in  the  Fyoum 
must  be  placed  in  the  Old  Monarchy. 

Besides  erecting  monuments  of  stone,  Thothmes  III.  appears  to 
have  been  the  author  of  extensive  constructions  of  bricks.  Egypt 
affords  abundant  material  for  this  manufacture,  and  a  few  days' 
exposure  to  the  sun  hardens  them  sufficiently,  unless  they  are  to 
be  subject  to  the  action  of  water.  Bricks  bearing  his  titular  shield, 
the  scarabaeus,  the  crenellated  parallelogram  and  the  disk  of  the 
sun  are  more  common  than  those  of  any  other  sovereign1.  There 
is  a  tomb  at  Thebes,  the  inscriptions  of  which  show,  that  its  occu- 
pant, Itoschere,  was  "  superintendent  of  the  great  buildings"  in 
the  reign  of  Thothmes  III. :  on  its  walls  the  operation  of  brick- 
making  is  represented2.  Men  are  employed,  some  in  working  up 
the  clay  with  an  instrument  resembling  the  Egyptian  hoe,  others 
in  carrying  loads  of  it  on  their  shoulders,  moulding  it  into  bricks, 
and  transporting  them,  by  means  of  a  yoke  laid  across  the 
shoulders,  to  the  place  where  they  are  to  be  laid  out  for  drying  in 
the  sun.  The  physiognomy  and  color  of  most  of  those  who  are 
thus  engaged  show  them  to  be  foreigners,  and  their  aquiline  nose 
and  yellow  complexion  suggest  the  idea  that  they  are  Jews.  Their 
labor  is  evidently  compulsory  ;  Egyptian  taskmasters  stand  by 
with  sticks  in  their  hands  ;  and  though  one  or  two  native  Egyp- 
tians appear  among  them,  we  may  easily  suppose  that  they  have 
been  condemned  to  hard  labor  for  their  crimes.  As  the  foreigners 
do  not  resemble  any  of  the  nations  with  whom  Thothmes  carried 
on  war,  and  who  are  well  known  from  the  paintings  and  reliefs  of 
subsequent  monarchs,  it  is  not  probable  that  they  are  captives 
taken  in  war.    They  can  therefore  hardly  be  any  other  than 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  2,  98. 
*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  tav.  xlix. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


195 


the  Israelites,  whom  we  know  from  their  own  history  to  have  been 
employed  in  this  drudgery.  Their  oppression  began  with  the 
accession  of  the  18th  dynasty,  and  the  expulsion  of  their  kindred 
Hyksos.  It  was  a  natural  fear,  that  when  any  war  fell  out  they 
should  join  themselves  to  the  enemies  of  Egypt  and  fight  against 
her.  The  kings  of  Egypt,  therefore,  while  they  endeavored  by  a 
cruel  expedient  to  prevent  their  increase,  and  by  hard  labor  to 
break  their  spirit,  employed  that  labor  to  strengthen  the  frontier 
on  the  side  of  Arabia  and  Palestine,  whence  their  danger  came. 
The  valley  of  Goshen,  which  was  their  place  of  settlement,  was  the 
direct  road  from  Palestine  to  Memphis1.  By  employing  them  to 
build  the  two  fortresses2,  Raameses  at  the  eastern3,  and  Pithom  at 
the  western  extremity  of  this  valley4,  the  Ph&raohs  provided  at 
once  a  barrier  against  future  invasions  and  the  means  of  keeping 
the  children  of  Israel  in  subjection.  Both  these  objects  were 
important  to  a  sovereign  like  Thothmes,  who,  during  his  Mesopo- 
tamian  expeditions,  must  have  left  his  country  exposed  to  his 
neighbors,  and  whose  long  absences  might  tempt  revolt.  If  Ros- 
chere  were  the  general  superintendent  of  the  great  architectural 

1  Gen.  xlvi.  28.  During  the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  this  same  valley, 
Saba-byar,  was  assigned  to  three  Arab  tribes,  driven  from  Syria.  (Bois- 
Ayme,  Memoires,  8,  111.) 

3  U6\eis  o^vpdi,  Sept.  Exod.  i.  11.  The  Egyptian  king  would  hardly  have 
placed  "treasure  cities"  in  such  a  locality,  whether  we  understand  money 
or  corn  to  have  been  treasured  up ;  but  they  were  excellently  adapted  for 
military  magaziues  and  garrisons  (1  Kings,  ix.  19  ;  2  Chron.  viii.  4,  Sept.). 

8  See  Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  p.  349,  on  the  site  of  Raameses  (Aboo- 
Kescheib).  He  attaches,  I  think,  too  much  importance  to  the  name,  as  a 
proof  that  it  was  built  by  Raameses  II.  A  stone  with  his  name  has  been 
found  there,  but  the  district  had  the  name  before  the  city  was  built.  See 
Gen.  xlvii.  11. 

4  Without  the  article  this  would  be  Thorn,  which  in  Coptic  signifies  to 
close  up.  (Peyron,  Lex  p.  51.)  It  was  not  far  from  Bubastis,  and  is  the 
Thoum  of  the  Itinerary  of  Antoninus. 


196 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


undertakings  of  Thothmes,  and  the  first  who  employed  the  Israel- 
ites upon  them,  it  is  very  natural  that  we  should  find  a  record  of 
it  in  his  tomb,  although  they  may  not  have  labored  in  the  brick- 
fields of  Thebes. 

Thirteen  expeditions  of  Thothmes  are  referred  to  in  the  monu- 
ment before  described,  and  the  thirty -fourth  year  of  his  reign  ; 
the  thirty-fifth  has  been  found  by  Lepsius.  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Amenophis  II.  The  memorials  of  his  reign  are  few,  and 
afford  little  materials  for  history.  The  obelisk  at  Alnwick  Castle, 
brought  by  Lord  Prudhoe  from  the  Thebaid,  is  inscribed  with  his 
name,  but  it  simply  records  the  fact  of  his  having  erected  two 
obelisks  in  honor  of  the  god  Kneph1.  He  continued  the  buildings 
at  Amada,  which  Thothmes  III.  had  begun,  and  appears  to  have 
bestowed  his  labors  chiefly  on  these  and  other  works  in  Nubia.  In 
a  speos  or  excavated  chapel  at  Ibrim,  he  appears  seated  with  two 
princes  or  great  officers.  One  of  them,  named  Osorsate,  presents 
to  him  the  animal  productions  of  the  southern  regions,  lions, 
jackals  and  hares,  an  inscription  above  specifying  their  numbers2. 
He  also  added  to  the  erections  of  his  predecessors  at  Thebes  ;  but 
most  of  his  works  here  have  perished.  There  remains  a  represen- 
tation of  him,  in  the  usual  attitude  of  a  conqueror,  about  to 
immolate  a  band  of  captives  whom  he  holds  by  the  hair  ;  their 
name  however  has  not  been  satisfactorily  explained.  We  have  no 
evidence  in  the  monuments  of  the  extent  of  his  Asiatic  dominion, 
but  his  inscriptions  are  found  at  Surabit-el-Kadim,  in  the  Peninsula 
of  Sinai8. 

1  Trans.  Roy.  Soe.  Lit  2nd  series,  1,  p.  171.  The  surface  within  the 
sculptures  is  nearly  flat,  not  in  relief,  which  is  uncommon  in  works  of  this 

age. 

2  Champollion,  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  140. 

1  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  312.  I  find  those  of  Amenophis  UL, 
but  not  the  second  mentioned  at  this  place  by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  (Mod.  Eg 
and  Thebes,  2,  406). 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


197 


His  son  Thothmes  IV.  continued  the  works  of  his  family  at 
Amada,  and  added  a  hypostyle  hall,  which  stands  in  front  of  them1. 
The  hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  which  are  very  beautifully  executed, 
record  his  victories  over  the  people  of  Cush  (Ethiopia),  but  give 
no  other  information  respecting  the  events  of  his  reign.  This 
appears,  however,  not  to  have  been  his  only  war.  A  stele  engra- 
ven on  a  rock  of  granite,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Nile,  opposite 
to  Philae,  records  a  victory  gained  by  him  over  the  Libyans  in  the 
7th  year  of  his  reign,  and  on  the  8th  day  of  the  month  Phamenoth5. 
At  Qoorneh,  in  a  tomb  of  an  officer  of  his  court,  the  king  himself 
appears  seated  on  a  throne,  on  the  base  of  which  are  nine  foreigners, 
bound  by  their  necks  and  arms,  in  the  manner  in  which  captive 
nations  are  usually  represented  on  Egyptian  monuments.  Four 
only  of  the  nine  names  are  legible  ;  they  have  not  occurred  before 
in  the  records  of  Egyptian  victories,  but  some  of  them  are  found 
on  later  monuments  ;  and  they  appear  all  to  belong  to  Asia. 
From  another  of  these  tombs  it  has  been  inferred  that  he  built 
a  palace  at  Thebes,  and  that  it  contained  an  edifice  dedicated 
to  Amun-re ;  but  no  traces  of  such  a  building  are  now  to  be 
found3. 

Amunoph,  or  Amenophis  III.,  the  son  of  Thothmes  IV.  and 
his  queen  Mauthemva,  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  monarchs  of 
the  18th  dynasty.  We  have  hitherto  found  no  traces  of  the  per- 
manent occupation  of  Nubia  by  the  Egyptian  kings,  higher  up 
the  Nile  than  Semneh,  but  the  temple  of  Soleb,  which  stands  a 
degree  further  south,  contains  evidence  that  under  Amunoph 
III.  the  boundary  of  the  empire  extended  at  least  thus  far.  The 
remains  of  this  edifice  have  been  already  described* ;  thirty-eight, 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  205. 

*  Champollion-Figeac,  p.  813. 

•  Rosellini,  p.  212.  The  person  who  was  buried  he»*e  had  the  charge  of 
the'  sacred  bari  of  Amun.    See  vol.  i  p.  385. 

4  Vol.  i.  p.  16. 


193 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


or  according  to  other  accounts  forty-three,  conquered  nations  are 
represented  there  ;  they  have  not  been  exactly  copied,  but  Mr.  Hos- 
kins  informs  us  that  on  one  of  them  he  found  the  name  of  Meso- 
potamia1. Probably  they  are  chiefly  the  names  of  Ethiopian 
tribes  whom  he  had  vanquished  in  the  extension  of  his  frontiers 
to  the  South.  .  His  name  is  found  on  a  tablet  at  Toumbos  near 
the  Third  Cataract.  The  lion  which  now  couches  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Egyptian  Gallery  in  the  British  Museum  is  inscribed  with 
the  name  of  Amunoph  III.,2  but  it  does  not  appear  on  any  of  the 
buildings  there,  and  the  lion  may  have  been  brought  from  Egypt 
by  Tirhakah,  by  whom  the  temple  seems  to  have  been  erected.  A 
scarabseus  inscribed  with  the  name  of  Amenophis  III.  and  his  wife 
Taia  speaks  of  the  land  of  Karoei  or  Kaloei  as  the  southern  boun- 
dary of  his  dominion3.  If  this  be  Coloe,  as  has  been  supposed4, 
his  conquests  must  have  been  carried  far  to  the  East  as  well  as  the 
South ;  for  Coloe  was  within  five  days'  journey  of  Axum  on  the  Red 
Sea6.  The  way  would  thus  be  prepared  for  the  expedition  of 
Rameses-Sesostris,  who  is  said  to  have  subdued  the  nations  along 
the  Erythraean  Sea  and  crossed  the  Straits  into  Arabia6.  A  more 
full  record  of  the  conquests  of  Amenophis  in  Ethiopia  is  found 
in  a  fragment  of  a  monolithal  granite  statue  which  is  now  in  the 
Louvre7.  The  prisoners  are  negroes,  and  the  lotus,  which  termi- 
nates the  cord  by  which  they  are  bound,  being  the  emblem  of 
Upper  Egypt,  characterizes  on  monuments  all  Southern  races,  as 
the  head  of  the  papyrus,  the  growth  of  Lower  Egypt,  does  all 
nations  living  to  the  North  of  Egypt.    There  have  been  originally 

1  Travels,  p.  250.  Birch  (Gall.  B.  M.  p.  84)  gives  also  Sinjar  in  Mesopo- 
tamia. 

a  Vol.  i.  p.  14.  "  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  261. 

4  Birch,  Gall.  B.  M.  p.  83. 

6  Cellarius,  Geogr.  Antiq.  iv.  8,  27. 

6  Herod.  2,  102.    Strabo,  17,  p.  769. 

T  Birch  in  Archjeologia,  31,  489-^91. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY-. 


199 


twenty-six  names,  of  which  six  are  no  longer  legible  and  no 
resemblance  has  been  found  between  those  which  have  been  pre- 
served and  any  modern  or  ancient  names  of  this  region,  excep< 
Kesh,  the  scriptural  Cush.  Amenophis  may  have  inherited,  as 
well  as  conquered  dominion  over  Ethiopia.  Those  who  have  com- 
pared many  of  the  representations  of  him  affirm,  that  his  own 
features  have  something  of  an  Ethiopian  cast1.  On  the  granite 
rock  of  the  little  island  of  Beghe,  near  the  Cataract,  a  figure  car- 
rying in  his  hand  what  Rosellini  calls  the  ensign  of  victory,  and 
Champollion  a  fly-fan,  appears  doing  homage  to  the  titular  or  pre- 
nominal  shield  of  Amenophis  III. :  over  his  head  is  the  inscription 
"  Royal  Son  of  the  land  of  Kush,  MemesV  It  seems  to  have 
been  the  custom  to  grant  a  virtual  or  titular  governorship  of  towns 
and  districts  to  members  of  the  royal  family ;  for  we  find  in  the 
tombs  at  Suan  (Eilithya),  mention  is  made  of  "  royal  sons  "  of  this 
place,  during  the  reigns  of  the  five  first  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty*. 
The  same  scarabseus  which  has  been  already  quoted  gives  Naha- 
raina  as  the  other  limit  of  the  dominions  of  Amenophis  III., 
agreeing  in  this  respect  with  the  inscription  at  Semneh. 

The  quarries  of  Siisilis,  which  have  supplied  the  principal  mate- 
rials for  the  edifices  of  Egypt,  were  extensively  wrought  in  the 
reign  of  Amenophis  IIL  Two  monuments  still  remain  there,  which 
from  some  cause  had  not  been  removed  to  their  destination  ;  they 
are  monolithal  shrines,  dedicated  to  Sebek,  the  crocodile-deity  of 
Ombi :  one  of  them  bears  the  date  of  the  27th  year  of  the  king's 
reign.  He  did  not  continue  the  works  of  architecture  at  Thebes 
begun  by  his  predecessors  of  the  18th  dynasty,  but  erected  two 
vast  palaces,  one  on  the  eastern,  the  other  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  Nile.    By  referring  to  the  description  of  the  remains  of  Thebes 

1  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  317.    He  says  that  from  the  monuments, 
Mauthemva,  his  mother,  appears  to  have  been  an  Ethiopian. 
a  See  p.  180  of  this  vol. 
8  Champollion,  Lettres,  p.  198. 


200 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


given  in  the  former  volume1,  it  will  be  seen  that  he  began  the 
buildings  at  Luxor  and  erected  the  greater  part  of  them.  The 
chambers  which  yet  remain  bear  his  legends,  with  the  title  "  Paci- 
ficator of  Egypt "  and  "  Vanquisher  of  the  Mennahom,"  an  unknown 
people.  In  the  same  place  is  found  a  singular  representation  of 
his  birth,  and  subsequent  education2.  In  the  first  picture  of  the 
series  his  mother  represented  with  the  attributes  of  the  god- 
dess Athor,  but  identified  by  her  name  Mauthe?nva,  stands  in  the 
presence  of  the  god  Thoth,  who  holds  a  roll  of  papyrus  in  his 
hand,  and  raises  the  other  towards  the  queen  with  the  action  of 
one  who  is  addressing  her.  The  purport  of  his  address  cannot  be 
ascertained,  but  from  the  connexion  of  this  with  the  following 
scenes,  it  is  probable,  that  as  the  Egyptian  Hermes  he  brings  a 
message  to  the  queen  from  the  god  of  Thebes,  announcing  her 
own  future  maternity.  In  the  second  scene  this  event  is  near  at 
hand3,  and  the  queen  is  led  by  the  god  Kneph  and  the  goddess 
Athor,  who  stretches  the  key  of  life  towards  her,  to  the  puerperal 
bed.  The  chamber  in  which  this  is  prepared  is  called  Ma-n-misiy 
a  name  given  to  the  apartment  of  a  temple,  in  which  the  mystical 
birth  of  the  young  god,  the  offspring  of  the  principal  deities,  is 
represented4.  The  queen,  in  the  manner  of  Egyptian  women,  is 
resting  on  the  knees  and  toes,  and  the  goddess  Isis  behind  her 
holds  up  her  hands,  in  the  attitude  of  one  who  is  comforting  and 
supporting  her.  Two  goddesses,  seated  opposite  to  the  queen,  are 
suckling  two  male  children  ;  their  finger  pointed  towards  their 
mouth  indicates  their  childish  age6 ;  the  lock  of  hair  falling  on  the 
1  Vol.  i.  p.  132,  145. 

9  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  223,  tav.  xxxviii.-xL 

*  "II  profilo  del  ventre  fu  evidentamente  incnrvato  oltre  il  consneto,  per 
dimostrare  la  gravidanza.  H  disegnatore  non  indico  forse  tanto  bene  q  nesta 
cireostanza  nella  minor  proporzione,  come  si  vede  chiara  nelT  origiuale." 
(Rosellini,  p.  225.) 

4  Vol.  i.  p.  214. 

6  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  405.    Compare  vol.  1,  p.  354  of  Harpocrates. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


201 


right  side  of  the  head  their  assimilation  to  Horus  and  other  youth- 
ful deities  who  are  thus  characterized1.  The  two-fold  number  does 
not  indicate  that  Amenophis  had  a  twin  brother,  but  is  common 
where  the  birth  of  deities  is  represented2.  Beneath  the  couch  are 
tjyo  spotted  cows,  sacred  to  Athor3,  who  turn  complacently  round 
towards  the  children  who  are  sucking  at  their  udders.  In  the 
next  scene,  Amunre  is  seen  standing  and  holding  in  his  hand  the 
youthful  Amenophis,  whom  a  hawk-headed  god  has  presented  to 
him  ;  he  is  addressing  the  child,  and  declares  that  he  bestows  upon 
him  life,  stability,  purity  and  happiness,  magnanimity  and  domi- 
nion on  the  throne  of  Horus4.  Two  figures  appear  behind  carrying 
the  children  ;  they  represent  the  Nile,  in  the  dry  season  and  at  the 
commencement  of  the  inundation,  the  former  being  distinguished 
by  the  blue  color,  the  latter  by  the  red-brown6.  Their  introduction 
here  may  be  only  symbolical  of  the  important  relation  in  which 
the  Nile  stood  to  the  prosperity  of  Egypt,  or  it  may  be  considered 
as  preparing  the  way  for  a  subsequent  representation,  in  which  two 
deities,  Mandoo  and  Atmoo,  appear  pouring  the  water  of  the  Nile 
over  the  king.  In  the  intervening  scene  we  see  the  goddess  Saft 
the  wife  of  Thoth,  and  like  him  presiding  over  writing,  painting 
and  language,  to  whom  the  children  are  presented.  Before  her 
kneels  a  figure  with  a  pot  of  paint,  while  the  goddess  holds  a 
brush  or  pen  ;  what  she  is  preparing  to  write  does  not  appear,  per- 

1  We  see  from  the  Rosetta  Stone  that  the  assimilation  of  a  youthful  sove- 
reign to  Horus  was  a  common  flattery.  Ptolemy  is  there  called  "  a  god, 
the  son  of  a  god  and  of  a  goddess,  as  Horus  the  son  of  Isis  and  Osiris."  (Ros. 
Inscr.  line  10.) 

2  The  reader  who  consults  Rosellinfs  Plates  must  remember  what  has 
been  said  (vol.  L  p.  226)  of  Egyptian  drawing.  The  four  legs  of  the  couch 
are  all  seen,  and  its  horizontal  seat  is  represented  perpendicularly,  so  that 
the  queen  and  goddesses  appear  to  be  seated  on  its  turned-up  edge. 

■  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  4,  489,  Plates,  36. 
*  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  228. 

5  Here,  as  eltsu where,  the  figures  of  the  Nile  are  androgynous. 
9* 


202 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


haps  the  name  and  royal  title  of  the  child1,  or  as  Rosellini  supposes, 
the  number  of  years  and  panegyrics  that  he  was  to  live. 

The  ceremony  of  the  purification  of  the  young  king  is  prelimi- 
nary to  that  of  his  inauguration ;  hitherto  he  has  appeared  with 
no  emblem  of  royalty,  but  now  he  wears  the  ur?eus  round  his  head  ; 
hitherto  he  has  been  naked,  but  now  he  has  a  short  garment  fast- 
ened round  this  waist.  With  this  head-dress  and  the  crook  and 
scourge  in  his  hands,  he  is  next  seen  borne  on  a  seat  into  the  pre- 
sence of  Amunre.  Having  descended  from  his  seat  and  exchanged 
f  the  cap  bound  with  the  uraeus  for  the  royal  helmet,  he  stands 

holding  a  bird2  in  his  hand  before  the  god,  who  has  placed  a  collar 
round  his  neck.  In  front  of  the  god  are  two  figures,  one  of  whom 
bears  the  red  diadem  which  forms  the  outer  part  of  the  pseheitt, 
and  represents  Lower  Egypt ;  the  other  the  white  conical  cap  which 
represents  Upper  Egypt.  Invested  with  these  he  enters  into  the 
full  prerogatives  of  sovereignty.  They  are,  however,  laid  aside, 
and  the  king  appears  with  his  helmet  only,  when  he  comes  in  a 
subsequent  scene,  conducted  by  Phre,  to  kneel  before  Amunre  and 
receive  his  benediction3.  His  inauguration  endowed  him  with  a 
sacred  character,  and  he  engages  immediately  after  in  the  perform- 
ance of  solemn  religious  acts.  Crowned  with  the  lower  part  of  the 
psckent  he  appears  running  into  the  presence  of  Amunkhem4  w  th 
a  vessel  of  libation  in  either  hand,  and  leads  before  the  same  divi- 

1  In  a  subsequent  scene  Saf  says,  according  to  the  interpretation  of  Rosel- 
lini, "  I  establish  thy  twofold  sculpture,"  i.  e.  thy  twofold  title,  symbolical 
and  phonetic.    (P.  238.) 

2  A  phoenix,  according  to  Rosellini  (p.  238),  the  emblem  of  a  pure  life.  If 
it  be  a  phoenix,  length  of  days,  or  immortality,  would  seem  a  more  natural 
signification. 

3  Tav.  xlL  1. 

4  See  also  Wilkinson,  pi.  79,  1.  This  action  of  running  into  the  presence 
of  a  god  is  explained  by  Rosellini  as  emblematic  of  the  completion  of  a 
temple  (M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  171,  244),  but  this  is  not  probable,  since  the  objects 
brought  are  very  various  in  different  representations. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY.  203 

nity  four  living  steers,  one  black,  one  white,  one  red  and  one  pied, 
his  head  being  ornamented,  not  with  a  helmet  or  the  pschent,  but 
with  the  insignia  of  Osiris-Sokari.  The  adjoining  chambers  of  the 
palace  of  Luxor  contain  other  representations  of  Amenophis 
engaged  in  performing  sacred  functions,  but  they  do  not  appear  to 
belong  so  immediately  to  his  inauguration  into  the  royal  and 
sacerdotal  office  as  those  which  have  been  just  described. 

Besides  the  palace  of  Luxor,  the  long  dromos  of  crio-sphinxes 
which  joins  it  to  Karnak1  was  the  work  of  Amenophis  III.,  whose 
name  can  yet  be  traced  upon  their  mouldering  remains.  But  the 
western  bank  of  the  Nile  appears  to  have  been  adorned  with  even 
more  stupendous  erections  than  those  which  we  have  already 
described.  Of  the  Amenophion2,  as  it  has  been  called,  the  greater 
part  is  a  heap  of  ruins,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  prove  its  former 
extent ;  and  if  the  two  colossal  statues3,  which  now  appear  in  such 
striking  insulation  in  the  plain  of  Thebes,  once  stood  at  the 
entrance  of  a  dromos  leading  to  the  Amenophion,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  a  more  impressive  combination. 

The  northernmost  of  these  statues  has  connected  the  name  of 
Amenophis  with  the  Memnon  slain  by  Achilles  at  the  siege  of 
Troy.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  mythe  of  Memnon  is 
of  Egyptian  origin.  In  the  Odyssey,  where  he  is  briefly  men- 
tioned*, for  he  does  not  appear  in  the  Iliad,  he  is  introduced  only 
as  a  hero  remarkable  for  his  beauty ;  his  eastern  origin  may  be 
alluded  to  in  his  being  made  the  son  of  Aurora.  He  must  early 
have  been  considered  as  an  Ethiopian,  though  not  so  called  by 
Homer ;  the  author  of  the  Theogony  (985)  makes  him  king  of  that 
country ;  and  Arctinus,  one  of  the  first  of  the  Cyclic  poets6,  in  his 
AMioflrfc  related  his  arrival  at  Troy,  his  death  by  the  hand  of  Achil- 

1  See  vol.  i.  p.  145.  8  See  voL  i.  p.  132. 

*  See  vol.  i.  p.  132.  4  Od.      188.  X',  521. 

•  Miiller,  de  Cyelo  Grcecorum  Epico,  p.  44,  quoting  Proclus,  Chresto- 
mathia. 


204 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


les,  and  the  immortality  granted  to  him  on  the  petition  of  Aurora. 
As  yet,  however,  Ethiopia  appears  to  have  been  conceived  of  as  an 
eastern,  not  a  southern  region.  Herodotus  places  the  Memnonium 
at  Susa1 ;  ^Eschylus  made  the  mother  of  Memnon  a  Cissian  or 
Susian :  even  in  Strabo's  time  the  royal  palace  there  bore  this 
name2.  But  after  the  Greeks  established  themselves  in  Egypt> 
Ethiopia  became  to  them  a  definite  geographical  name,  denoting 
the  valley  of  the  Nile  above  Egypt  to  the  island  of  Meroe,  and 
eastward  to  the  Erythraean  Sea.  It  was  therefore  natural  that  they 
should  seek  among  the  kings  of  that  country,  either  as  ruling  in 
their  proper  territory  or  as  sovereigns  of  Egypt,  for  the  original  of 
their  Memnon.  He  had  not  come  alone  to  Troy ;  he  had  led  a 
powerful  army  (so  at  least  the  Greeks  believed3)  ;  no  sovereign  of 
Egypt  therefore  would  have  fulfilled  the  conditions  of  their  hypo- 
thesis, who  had  not  made  conquests  in  Asia.  Now  although  we 
have  not,  probably  from  accidental  causes,  the  same  monumental 
evidence  of  campaigns  carried  on  in  Asia  by  Amenophis  III.  as  the 
tablet  of  Karnak  furnishes  respecting  his  father,  we  know  that  at 
least  as  far  as  Mesopotamia  the  boundaries  of  his  dominion  extended  ; 
and  from  the  analogy  of  other  reigns  we  may  conclude  that  this 
dominion  was  not  maintained  without  military  expeditions.  Tn 
the  passage  in  which  Herodotus  describes  the  tablet  erected  by 
Sesostris  at  Nahr-el-Kelb,  and  those  in  Asia  Minor  on  the  road 
from  Ephesus  to  Phocaea,  and  from  Sardis  to  Smyrna,  he  says  that 
some  persons  supposed  that  these  figures  represented  Memnon,  but 
that  they  were  in  error.  Whatever  Herodotus  himself  might  mean 
by  Memnon,  those  whose  opinion  he  refutes  probably  meant 
Amenophis-Memnon ;  for  the  monument  of  Nahr-el-Kelb  is  so 
completely  Egyptian,  that  there  could  be  no  mistake  on  that  point ; 
but  among  those  who  could  not  read  the  Egyptian  character  a 


1  ft,  53,  54:  1,  151. 

•  See  Quintus  Calaber,  lib.  2. 


2  Geogr.  15,  p.  728. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


205 


question  might  easily  arise,  whether  Amenophis  or  Sesostris,  both 
Egyptian  conquerors  of  Asia,  were  the  special  object  of  commemo- 
ration on  this  monument.  As  some  gave  the  monument  of  Nahr- 
el-Kelb  to  Memnon,  others  gave  the  statue  at  Thebes  to  Sesostris, 
a  natural  confusion  between  two  illustrious  names,  in  an  age  which 
had  not  the  means  of  critical  judgement1. 

The  word  Memnon  appears  to  have  been  a  name  or  epithet  of 
the  Ethiopians.  Stephanus  of  Byzantium  says,  "  The  Memnones 
are  an  Ethiopian  nation,  a  word  which,  according  to  Polyhistor,  is 
interpreted  fierce  or  warlike  and  stern2."  Agathemerus8,  enume- 
rating the  nations,  who  live  along  the  Nile  above  Egypt,  says 
"  After  the  Great  Cataract  westward  of  the  Nile  live  the  Euony- 
mitce,  the  Sebridae,  the  Catoipi  (Cadupi  or  Catadupi4,  the  people 
of  the  region  of  the  Cataracts  ?),  and  the  Memnones  who  lived 
close  to  the  island  of  Meroe,  after  whom  come  the  Elephant-eating 
Ethiopians."  We  conclude,  therefore,  that  Memnones  is  a  real  and 
geographical  name ;  and  probably  a  name  of  Greek  etymology, 
since  it  enters  into  composition  with  other  pure  Greek  words5, 
denoting  "  the  valiant  or  warlike,"  a  name  equally  appropriate  to 
the  nation  and  to  their  chief.  Memnon  is  therefore  equivalent 
to  an  Ethiopian  ;  and  as  Ethiopian  was  a  name  given  by  the 
Greeks  to  all  whose  complexions  were  darkened,  whether  by  an 
eastern  or  a  southern  sun,  his  mythic  genealogy,  which  made 
Aurora  his  mother,  is  easily  accounted  for.  His  pre-eminent 
beauty,  strange  as  it  may  seem  to  us,  was  also  a  consequence  of 

1  Pausanias,  1.  42,  2.  "EL/covca  61  fjSf)  Kai  HeawoTpiv  (pa/itvuv  rival  tovto  ro 
ayaXfia  S  Ka///?tj<7ijs  iitKOipe. 

*  'Aypbivs  nvas  >)  //a^t//ovs  Kai  ^a\cnovs.  Polyhistor  in  Steph.  Byz.  sub 
voce  bAzpvova. 

*  See  note  to  the  passage  of  Steph.  Byz.  in  Berkelius'  edition. 
4  Pliny,  N.  H.  5,  10.  6,  35. 

6  As  BpaavitCfivwv,  ' Ayafie/ivcov .  Comp.  Eust  (ad  IL  e',  639),  p.  591.  AfjAor 
wj  kui  rd  axXoiv  b  fiifivuyv,  Ka8a  Kal  b  pivwv,  avSpciovs  vnoSt]\ov<ri, 


206 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


his  Ethiopic  extraction;  for  according  to  Herodotus  (3,  114)  the 
Ethiopians  were  not  only  the  tallest  and  most  long-lived,  but  the 
handsomest  of  the  human  race. 

The  fiction  of  a  musical  sound,  issuing  from  the  statue  of  Mern- 
non  at  Thebes  at  sunrise,  appears  to  be  entirely  Greek.  To  the 
Egyptians  it  was  never  anything  more  than  the  statue  of  their  king 
Amenophis1  ;  all  the  inscriptions  which  record  that  the  sound  had 
been  heard  are  of  the  Roman  times2 ;  the  name  Memnonium 
was  given  to  the  quarter  in  which  it  stood,  under  the  Ptolemies, 
but  no  monument  nor  any  passage  in  an  author  of  that  age  alludes 
to  a  vocal  Memnon.  Cambyses  did  not  need  the  pretext  of  its 
magic  music  to  induce  him  to  mutilate  a  statue  reverenced  by  the 
Thebans8.  As  the  statue  has  been  silent  for  centuries,  we  have 
no  means  of  ascertaining  how  the  belief  in  its  musical  quali- 
ties arose ;  it  probably  originated  in  the  poetical  imagination  of 
the  Greeks,  favored  by  some  slight  or  accidental  cause,  and  the 
eastward  position  of  the  face  of  the  statue,  and  was  humored  by 
the  art  of  the  Egyptian  priests. 

The  identification  of  Memnon  the  Ethiopian  with  the  Theban 
statue  naturally  gave  rise  to  historical  hypotheses  as  well  as  poeti- 
cal fable.  According  to  Agatharchides4,  the  Ethiopians  invaded 
Egypt  and  garrisoned  many  of  their  towns,  and  by  them  the  so- 
called  Memnonia  were  completed.  Here  a  false  hypothesis  is 
grounded  on  an  historical  fact ;  for  though  the  Ethiopians  occupied 

1  In  Syncellus  we  have  after  the  name  of  Amenophis  Ouroj  itmv  b  M^j/wv 
tlvai  voixi^Sfjie-.'os,  koI  (pOeyyofuvos  Atfloj.  "Lemma  diversi  esse  scriptoris  a  Ma- 
nethone  probat  silentium  Josephi,  ideoque  ad  Africanum  adscribendum." 
Routh  ad  Afric.  Rel.  Sac.  2,  396.  The  addition  is  found  in  the  Armenian 
Version  of  Eusebius. 

1  See  the  full  collection  of  them,  with  the  commentary  of  Letronne,  in 
the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Literature,  Series  i.  vol.  1,  part  2. 

8  Syncellus.  Pausanias  mentions  the  fact,  but  not  the  motive.  See  the 
passage  from  Polysenus,  voL  i.  p.  135,  note. 

4  Apud  Photium  Bibl.  p.  1342,  ed.  Hoesch. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


207 


Egypt,  perhaps  more  than  once,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had 
any  share  in  erecting  the  buildings  called  Memnonia.  This  name 
was  given  in  the  age  of  Strabo  to  the  remains  of  a  palace  at  Aby- 
dos,  and  by  some  also  to  the  Labyrinth1.  The  splendor  of  the  real 
palace  of  Amenophis  seems  to  have  rendered  it  a  general  appella- 
tion for  a  royal  building  of  great  extent  and  magnificence.  "We 
know  that  the  palace  of  Abydos  was  chiefly  the  work  of  Rameses 
III.,  the  Labyrinth  of  Ammenemes.  The  story  of  an  Ethiopian 
migration  or  invasion  takes  a  still  more  definite  form,  in  the  state- 
ment given  in  the  Chronicon  of  Eusebius,  that  the  Ethiopians, 
removing  from  the  river  Indus,  dwelt  on  the  borders  of  Egypt2. 
This  event  being  placed  under  the  reign  of  Amenophis,  is  evidently 
intended  to  be  considered  as  connecting  the  story  of  Memnon  with 
his  reign,  and  the  date  of  1615  years  before  Christ  is  assigned 
to  it. 

Like  his  ancestor  Amenophis  L,  Amenophis-Memnon  received 
divine  honors,  and  a  special  priesthood,  called  "  the  pastophori  of 
Amenophis  in  the  Memnoneia,"  still  existed  in  the  Ptolemaic 
times3. 

The  mother  of  Amenophis,  Mautemva4,  is  represented  on  the 
right  side  of  the  throne  of  his  statue  ;  his  wife,  who  is  seen  on  the 
left,  was  called  Taia.  Her  name  is  joined  with  his,  on  the  en- 
graved scarabaei  of  a  large  size  which  are  frequent  in  the  collections 
of  Egyptian  antiquities.  One  of  these,  according  to  the  interpre- 
tation of  Rosellini,  commemorates  the  marriage  of  the  king  in  the 

1  Strabo,  17,  p.  813.  All  the  buildings  which  passed  by  this  name  were 
on  the  western  side  of  the  river. 

3  "  JSthiopes,  ab  Indo  flumine  eonsurgentes,  juxta  Egyptum  consederunV 
Chron.  Hieronym.  p.  72,  ed.  Scaliger. 

8  See  Papyr.  v.  vi.  vii.  in  Peyron's  Collection. 

4  A  monument  in  the  British  Museum  (Birch,  pi.  34)  represents  her 
seated  on  a  throne  which  is  placed  in  an  Egyptian  boat  or  bari.  Her  name 
Mautemva  is  expressed  phonetically  by  a  vulture,  McuU, 


208 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


eleventh  year  of  his  reign  ;  it  has  been  already  quoted,  as  defining 
the  limits  of  his  kingdom.  The  other,  whose  signification  is 
obscure,  appears  to  refer  to  the  performance  of  some  public  work1. 
The  conjunction  of  the  name  of  the  queen  with  that  of  the  king  on 
these  memorials,  indicates  a  greater  participation  in  the  royal  power 
on  her  part  than  was  common  in  the  Egyptian  monarchy.  Ame- 
nophis  appears  to  have  had  other  children  besides  Horus  who  suc- 
ceeded him  on  the  throne.  A  stele  in  the  Museum  of  Florence 
which  bears  his  title  mentions  "  a  royal  scribe  of  the  house  of  the 
royal  daughter  Amenset*"  the  comptroller,  it  should  seem,  of  the 
princess's  household. 

The  tomb  of  Amenoph  III.  is  the  oldest  royal  sepulchre  pre- 
served in  the  Bab-el-Melook,  but  is  not  that  which  in  the  Roman 
times  was  called  the  tomb  of  Memnon.  It  is  of  great  length, 
extending,  though  not  in  one  line  of  direction,  352  feet,  with  seve- 
ral lateral  chambers3.  Although  now  in  a  state  of  great  decay,  the 
remains  of  painting  on  its  walls  indicate  a  good  style  of  art.  The 
largest  apartment  represents  a  common  funeral  scene,  the  passage 
of  the  Sun  through  the  inferior  hemisphere,  the  legends  being 
traced  in  linear  hieroglyphics,  which  approach  very  nearly  to  the 
hieratic  character.  The  tomb  of  Amenoph  III.  in  its  perfect  state 
has  been  one  of  the  most  complete,  and  Amenophis-Memnon 
reigned  according  to  Manetho  thirty-one  years-;  the  thirty-sixth4 
has  been  found  on  his  monuments,  illustrating  the  remark  of 
Champollion5,  that  the  most  elaborate  tombs  are  those  of  the 
sovereigns  who  had  the  longest  reigns. 

lie  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  whose  name  in  the  lists  is  Horus, 

1  Rosellini  (Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  266)  thinks  the  construction  of  a  cistern,  but 
acknowledges  the  uncertainty  of  his  own  interpretation. 
3  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  319. 

8  Wilkinson.  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  215.    Champollion,  Lettres,  226. 
*  Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  78,  Germ. 
6  See  vol.  i.  p.  141. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


209 


phonetically  expressed  by  tLe  hawk,  the  emblem  of  the  god,  with 
the  addition  of  the  character  which  denotes  the  panegyries  or 
solemn  festivals1.  His  monuments  commemorate  victories  obtained 
over  the  African  tribes.  In  a  grotto  near  the  Second  Cataract2, 
he  is  represented  in  the  form  of  the  youthful  Horus,  suckled  by 
the  goddess  Anouke3.  The  ram-headed  god  of  Thebes,  Kneph  or 
Noum*,  stands  by ;  he,  like  Anouke,  was  an  object  of  special  vene- 
ration between  the  First  and  Second  Cataract. 

The  principal  historical  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Horus,  how- 
ever, are  in  the  quarries  of  Silsilis,  which  seem  to  have  been  exten- 
sively wrought  for  the  public  works  then  carried  on.  A  large 
space  on  the  wall  of  one  of  the  galleries  has  been  occupied  by  a 
scene  representing  his  triumph  :  much  of  it  has  perished,  but 
enough  remains  to  show  its  purport5.  He  is  seated  on  a  throne 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  twelve  military  chiefs,  while  two  others 
shade  him  with  fans  attached  to  long  spears,  and  an  attendant, 
keeping  his  face  towards  the  king  as  he  walks,  scatters  grains  of 
incense  on  a  censer  which  he  holds  out  towards  him.  It  is 
evidently  the  celebration  of  a  military  triumph  for  a  victory  over 
the  Africans.  Captives,  whose  features  are  strongly  marked  with 
the  negro  peculiarities,  are  led  bound  by  the  wrists  and  neck ;  and 
the  inscriptions  record  that  the  great  ones  of  the  land  of  Cush  had 
been  trampled  under  foot.  Both  Luxor  and  Karnak  received 
additions  from  him.  One  of  the  rows  of  criosphinxes  at  the  last- 
mentioned  place  bears  his  legend,  with  an  inscription  declaring  that 
he  had  made  great  constructions  in  the  residences  of  Thebes6. 
The  propylaeum  from  which  this  row  leads  was  also  built  by 
Horus,  and  beside  the  gate  of  entrance  are  seen  traces  of  a  gigantic 

1  The  whole  is  read  Hor-mbhai. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  272.    M.  R.  tav.  xliv.  5. 

8  S^e  vol.  L  p.  323.  4  See  vol.  i.  p.  313. 

8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  278.    M.  R.  tav.  xliv. 

6  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  288. 


210 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


figure  of  him,  engaged  in  smiting  his  enemies.  The  name  of  Ber- 
ber alone  is  legible,  denoting  probably  some  African  race,  though 
it  would  be  hasty  to  identify  it  with  the  Barbaria  of  Ptolemy,  on 
the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  or  the  modern  names  of  Barabra  and 
Berber1. 

The  works  of  sculpture  of  this  age  show  the  high  perfection 
which  art  had  already  attained.  The  Egyptian  Museum  of  Turin 
contains  two  admirable  statues  of  Horus,  one  in  a  white  and  crys- 
talline calcareous  stone,  the  other  in  black  granite.  On  the  first 
the  king  appears  standing  beside  the  god  Amonre,  who  is  repre- 
sented as  of  colossal  size ;  the  hieroglyphics  of  the  latter  contain  a 
decree,  very  analogous  in  its  forms  to  that  of  the  Rosetta  stone,  in 
which  the  benefits  rendered  by  him  to  Egypt  are  enumerated,  sta- 
tues ordered  to  be  erected  in  the  principal  temples,  and  panegyries 
to  be  celebrated  in  his  honor,  conjointly  with  the  god  Phre.  His 
daughter,  whose  name  has  been  read  Tmauhmot,  sits  with  Horus 
on  his  throne,  and  the  decree  ordains  that  her  statue  should  be 
placed  in  the  temple  along  with  his2.  A  sphinx  with  female  attri- 
butes is  carved  on  the  side  of  the  throne,  in  allusion  to  her  sharing 
with  him  the  attributes  of  royalty3. 

The  genealogical  succession  of  the  kings  after  Horus  is  very 
embarrassing,  from  the  want  of  harmony  between  the  monu- 
ments and  the  lists.    On  the  tablet  of  Abydos  and  the  lists  in  the 

1  According  to  Herodotus,  the  Egyptians  called  all  i3ap0dpovg  who  did  not 
speak  their  own  language  (2,  158).  This  may  only  mean  that  they  desig- 
nated them  by  a  name  implying  like  0dp/3apos  (Strabo,  14,  663)  harshness 
of  speech ;  or  they  may  have  used  the  same  onomatopoeia  as  the  Greeks. 
Berber  in  Coptic  denotes  the  confused  murmur  of  boiling  water,  no  inapt 
simile  for  a  foreign  speech,  which  always  seems  inarticulate  to  those  to 
whom  it  is  unintelligible.  Bpa£o  or  /fy  jo-o-w,  which  signifies  to  seethe,  also 
denotes  an  inarticulate  sound.    See  Hesych.  fipd&iv,  0a0pa$eiv. 

2  Champollion-Figeac,  321.  Compare  Rosetta  Inscr.  translated  in  Birch. 
Gall.  B.  Mus. 

8  See  vol.  i.  p.  115. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


211 


Rameseion  and  at  Medinet  Aboo1,  the  next  name  to  Horus  is 
Kamessu,  who  is  followed  by  the  king  whom  Champollion  and 
Rosellini  call  Menephthah,  Lepsius  and  Bunsen,  Seti  Merienpthah  ; 
but  in  the  lists  we  find  that  Horus  was  succeeded  by  Acherres  (or 
as  Josephus  has  it,  his  daughter  Acenchres).  These  are  followed 
by  Rathos  (Rathotis),  Chebres,  Acherres  (in  Josephus  two  Acen- 
cheres),  Armesses  (Armais),  Ramesses,  Amenophath,  the  first 
whose  name  bears  any  analogy  to  Menephthah.  It  would  be  to 
little  purpose  to  relate  the  expedients  resorted  to  for  the  removal 
of  these  difficulties.  That  a  period  of  civil  war  or  divided  reign 
occurred  about  this  time  is  evident  from  the  circumstance  that  the 
shields  of  two  kings,  Amuntoonh  or  Amuntuanch  and  a  fourth 
Amenoph,  are  found  mutilated2.  The  explanation  which  Lepsius 
has  devised  of  the  various  facts  observed  on  the  monuments  is, 
that  besides  Horus  who  succeeded  him,  Amenoph  III.  left  two 
sons,  Amenoph  IV.,  Amuntuanch,  and  a  daughter,  Athotis.  The 
two  sons  both  reigned  during  the  life  of  Horus,  in  what  relations 
with  him  we  know  not.  The  shield  of  Amenophis  IV.  has  not 
been  found  further  to  the  north  than  Hermopolis  Magna  in  Middle 
Egypt8,  and  where  found  it  is  always  defaced*.  In  like  manner 
the  shields  of  Amuntuanch,  which  are  found  chiefly  in  Ethiopia, 
are  defaced.  We  may  hence  conclude  that  their  relations  to 
Horus  were  hostile.  It  is  evident  that  he  either  put  down  or  sur- 
rived  Amenoph  IV.  and  Amuntuanch,  as  stones  marked  with 
their  shield  are  found  in  buildings  at  Karnak  which  Horus  erected, 
and  for  the  name  of  Amuntuanch  has  been  substituted  that  of 
Horus5.  The  buildings  of  Horus  contain  also  stones  marked  with 
a  royal  name,  which  was  read  by  Wilkinson  Atinre  Bakhan,  and 
by  Lepsius  Bech-naten  Ra,  in  inverted  order ;  and  the  sculpture 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  i.  p.  204.    iii.  1,  305. 

9  Wilkinson,  M.  <fc  C.  1,  57.  ■  See  vol.  i.  p.  89. 

4  Bunsen,  B.  3,  p.  88,  Germ.    Wilkinson,  M.  &  C.  1,  57. 
8  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  255. 


212 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  these  stones  is  so  fresh,  as  to  show  that  the  buildings  of  which 
they  are  a  part  were  destroyed  soon  after  their  erection1.  This 
Bech-natenra  (sometimes  written  Bakhan  only),  hitherto  supposed 
to  be  an  intrusive  king,  a  worshipper  of  the  Sun,  Lepsius  takes  for 
a  queen,  the  wife  and  widow  of  Amunoph  IV.,  and  from  her  name 
he  explains  the  Acencheres  or  Kencheres  of  the  lists.  The 
daughter  of  Amenophis  III.,  whose  name  is  written  on  a  monu- 
ment Teti  or  Tati,  and  who  is  called  "  royal  daughter,  sister, 
mother,  wife,"2  is  according  to  him  Athothis,  the  reading  of  one 
MS.  for  Rathotis  ;  her  husband,  the  personage  whose  tomb  Cham- 
pollion  discovered  in  the  western  valley  of  Thebes,  and  whose 
name  he  read  Skhai*.  They  were,  according  to  Lepsius,  the 
parents  of  Ramessu,  the  founder  of  that  long  line  of  princes  who 
fill  the  19th  and  20th  dynasty4.  Here  we  find  the  monuments 
again  coinciding  with  the  lists,  and  as  we  follow  the  former 
authority  only,  we  shall  leave  the  attempts  to  reconcile  them  to  be 
confirmed  or  overthrown  by  subsequent  research. 

Ramessu,  the  immediate  successor  of  Horus  on  the  tablet  of 
Abydos,  appears  to  be  both  the  Arm  esses  and  the  Ramesses,  the 
14th  and  loth  of  Manetho's  18th  dynasty,  the  consonants  in  both 
words  being  the  same.  The  Armais  of  Josephus  appears  also  to 
be  the  same  person  with  a  variation  of  spelling.  Of  Ramessu's 
reign  little  is  known.  The  second  year  of  his  reign  is  found  on  a 
stele  dug  out  by  the  French  and  Tuscan  expedition5  from  the  ruins 

1  Perring  (Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2nd  Ser.  1,  140)  supposes  that  the  figures 
found  at  El-Tel,  representing  the  worship  of  the  Sun,  are  those  of  the 
Hyk6os  kings.  All  that  relates  to  these  Sun-worshippers,  to  whom  Bech- 
naten  Ra  belonged,  is  very  obscure.  Layard  (Nineveh,  2,  211)  thinks  they 
may  be  Assyrians,  as  the  Sun's  disk  was  worshipped  at  Nineveh. 

a  Bunsen,  Neues  Reich,  pi.  viii.  3  Lettres,  247. 

4  Ramessu  (born  of  Ra)  is  probably  the  original  participial  form  of  the 
name.    (See  Bunsen,  vol.  i.  p.  297,  Eng.  Trans. 

6  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  298. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


213 


of  a  temple  near  "Wadi  Haifa,  erected  by  Amenophis  II.  Ramessu 
bad  bestowed  gifts  upon  tbe  priests.  The  stele,  which  is  dated  the 
20th  of  Mechir,  in  that  year,  but  erected  and  terminated  by  his 
son,  speaks  of  the  people  of  the  "  Land  of  the  Nine  Bows"  as  being 
subjected  beneath  his  feet,  and  commemorates,  besides  various 
offerings  made  by  him,  "  pure  men  and  women  of  the  captives." 
This  description  occurs  elsewhere  on  Egyptian  monuments.  The 
prisoners  are  divided  into  three  classes,  the  first  of  whom  appear 
to  be  the  ordinary  prisoners  of  war,  who  were  reduced  into  slavery 
or  employed  on  public  works.  The  second,  called  pure,  which  is 
expressed  by  the  same  hieroglyphic  character  as  priest,  were  pro- 
bably distributed  to  the  different  temples,  to  perform  as  hieroduli 
the  inferior  offices  of  ministration.  The  third  class  seem  to  have 
been  hostages1. 

That  the  reign  of  Ramessu  was  short  has  been  inferred  not  only 
from  the  paucity  of  his  monuments,  but  from  the  state  of  his  tomb2. 
It  was  nearly  buried  under  rubbish,  which  was  cleared  away  by 
Champollion,  and  the  tomb  itself  was  found  to  consist  of  two  cor- 
ridors, without  sculpture,  terminating  in  an  apartment  decorated 
with  paintings.  The  granite  sarcophagus  which  once  contained 
the  body  of  the  king  had  no  sculpture,  but  was  painted.  From 
the  attributes  given  to  Ramessu  in  the  paintings,  it  appears  that 
some  were  executed  during  his  lifetime,  others  after  his  death3. 
Another  presumption  that  his  reign  was  short  arises  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  Armais  or  Armesses  and  Ramesses,  whom  we 
believe  to  be  Ramessu,  are  represented  as  having  reigned  together 
only  six  years,  or  according  to  Josephus,  five  years  and  five 
months. 

The  name  of  the  successor  of  Ramessu  on  the  tablet  of  Abydos 

1  Birch  in  Trans,  of  Royal  Society  of  Literature,  2nd  Series,  2,  345. 
'  No.  16  in  Wilkinson's  enumeration  of  the  tombs  in  the  Bab-el-Melook. 
Mod.  Eg.  <fc  Thebes,  2,  214. 

8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  309. 


214 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


has  been  variously  read,  and  exhibits  a  diversity  which  is  not 
common1.  Champollion  at  first  believed  the  various  forms  in  which 
the  name  is  written  to  represent  different  kings.  One  class,  in 
which  the  figure  of  Osiris  is  found  united  with  the  syllable  EI,  he 
read  Osirei.  Another,  in  which  a  different  deity,  whom  he  sup- 
posed to  be  Mandoo,  takes  the  place  of  Osiris,  he  read  Manduei, 
and  considered  him  as  a  successor  of  Osirei,  and  both  as  represent- 
ing the  two  Acencheres  of  Manetho.  By  local  study  of  the  Egyp- 
tian monuments  he  ascertained  that  the  figure  of  the  god  Mandoo 
is  very  different,  but  it  long  remained  uncertain  how  this  name  was 
to  be  pronounced.  The  divinity  represented,  a  sitting  figure  with 
long  ears  and  a  head  similar  to  that  of  a  tapir,  often  occurs  on 
monuments,  especially  in  Nubia.  The  phonetic  name  was  disco- 
vered to  be  Set  or  Seth.  It  was  observed  that  the  character  by 
which  this  god  is  denoted  had  been  chiselled  out  wherever  it 
occurred  in  the  name  of  a  king2.  This  appearance  of  hostility, 
which  Champollion  first  remarked  in  the  Museum  at  Turin,  and 
found  universal  in  Egypt,  led  him  to  conclude  that  it  could  be  no 
other  than  Typhon,  the  principle  of  Evil,  one  of  whose  Egyptian 
names  was  Seth,  and  thus  the  name  of  the  king  was  read  Scthei, 
and  the  effaced  figure  was  supposed  to  be  an  ass,  which  was  an 
emblem  of  Typhon.  The  other  part  of  the  group  was  read 
Phthahmen  or  Menephthah.  It  was  observed,  however,  that  in 
the  same  inscription,  and  where  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  iden- 
tity, the  name  of  the  god  Amun  was  sometimes  substituted  for  that 
of  Pthah3,  which  led  to  the  conclusion  that  neither  of  these  names, 
nor  that  of  Osiris  noticed  before,  formed  a  part  of  the  phonetic 
name,  which  was  pronounced  simply  Sethei.  The  name  of 
Menephthah,  however,  has  become  so  current  that  we  shall 
retain  it. 

1  The  varieties  are  given  by  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  i.  1,  tav.  ix.  110  a, 
b,  e,  d. 

3  See  vol.  i.  p.  350.  3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  329. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


215 


To  account  for  the  introduction  of  such  a  divinity  as  Typhon  into 
a  royal  title,  Rosellini  supposed  that  it  was  adopted  by  the  king  to 
express  that  he  was  the  destroyer  of  his  enemies ;  but  this  leaves 
unexplained  the  subsequent  obliteration  of  his  figure,  which  seems 
to  imply  that  he  had  become  odious  after  the  erection  of  the  monu- 
ments on  which  it  is  found.  Lepsius  on  the  other  hand  maintains 
that  the  figure  is  not  an  ass  but  a  giraffe  (an  animal  which  is  not 
uncommon  in  hieroglyphics),  and  that  Seth  whose  emblem  it  is,  was 
originally  a  beneficent  deity,  held  in  high  honor  by  the  Egyptians, 
but  that  by  some  revolution  in  theological  opinions  he  subsequently 
was  identified  with  the  principle  of  Evil,  and  his  image  defaced 
wherever  it  was  found.  The  evidence  of  this  hypothesis  has  not 
yet  been  produced.  The  name  Seth  does  not  disappear  from  the 
Egyptian  dynasties,  even  after  the  time  when  the  change  supposed 
to  be  indicated  by  the  obliteration  occurred ;  the  priest  of  Vulcan, 
who  led  the  Egyptians  against  Sennacherib,  was  called  Sethos. 

Setei  Menephthah  has  left  a  memorial  of  himself  in  the  temple 
of  Amada  in  Nubia,  built  by  Thothmes  and  repaired  by  him  ;  and 
at  Silsilis,  where  he  excavated  one  of  the  small  grotto  temples  in 
the  western  rock.  But  his  principal  monuments  are  at  Thebes. 
He  began  the  palace  of  Qoorneh  on  the  western  side  of  the  river, 
which  has  been  already  described  under  the  name  of  Meneph- 
theion1,  but  as  it  remained  scarcely  finished  at  his  death,  it  was 
completed  and  decorated  by  his  successors,  Rameses  II.  and  III.,  who 
give  the  honor  of  their  own  labors  to  Menephthah.  The  chief 
apartment  of  the  palace,  forty-eight  feet  long  and  thirty-three  wide, 
appears  to  have  been  designed  as  a  place  of  public  assembly  for 
civil  and  judicial  purposes.  The  remains  at  Karnak  are  much 
more  important2.  The  north-western  wall  of  the  hypostyle  hall  is 
divided  into  compartments  which  occupy  the  whole  of  its  vast  sur- 
face, and  covered  with  figures  and  hieroglyphics  in  that  peculiar 


1  VoL  i.  p.  128. 


8  Vol.  i.  p.  147,  148. 


216 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


relief  which  the  Egyptian  artists  practised.  Each  of  them  re- 
presents some  great  military  undertaking,  in  which  Menephthah 
triumphs  over  five  different  nations  of  Asia ;  and  each  concludes 
with  a  procession  in  honor  of  Amun,  to  whom  spoil  and  captives 
are  presented,  in  gratitude  for  his  having  given  the  victory  to  his 
worshippers.  The  magnitude  of  the  scale  on  which  these  pictures 
are  projected,  the  spirit  of  the  drawing  and  the  high  finish  of  the 
execution,  show  that  painting  and  sculpture,  both  as  mechanical 
and  intellectual  arts,  had  attained  to  great  perfection. 

Menephthah  had  scarcely  ascended  the  throne  when  he  under- 
took a  military  expedition  against  the  same  nations,  over  whom 
the  Thothmes  and  Amenophis  had  established  their  dominion. 
We  have  no  information  from  monuments  of  any  wars  of  Horus 
with  Asiatic  nations,  and  the  state  of  division  into  which  Egypt 
appears  to  have  fallen,  both  in  his  reign  and  that  of  Ramessu, 
must  have  weakened  its  power  over  distant  countries.  One  of  the 
compartments  of  sculpture  at  Karnak1  represents  him,  with  a 
youthful  figure,  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  engaged  in  warfare 
with  a  people  who  are  called  Shos  or  Shosu,  and  their  land 
Kanana.  Their  features  are  wholly  different  from  the  Egyptians ; 
they  have  caps  on  their  heads  and  cuirasses  round  the  body,  and 
have  been  armed  with  spears  and  battle-axes.  They  are  in  hasty 
and  disorderly  flight  before  the  king,  who  is  pursuing  them  in  his 
biga,  and  has  already  pierced  many  with  his  arrows.  On  a  hill 
near  stands  a  fortress,  surrounded  with  a  fosse,  towards  which 
the  fugitives  are  making  their  way  ; — "  fortress  of  the  land  of 
Kanana  "  is  inscribed  on  the  front.  Another  compartment  repre- 
sents the  continuation  of  this  campaign2.  The  king  again  appears 
in  his  chariot,  transfixing  his  enemies  with  his  arrows ;  three  for- 
tresses are  seen  in  the  background,  the  nearest  of  which  is  already 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  337 ;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  xlviii.  2. 
7  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  xlix.  2. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   DYNASTY.  21*7 

taken,  and  has  the  name  of  the  king  inscribed  over  the  gate  ;  the 
fugitives  are  making  their  way  towards  a  mountain  covered  with 
wood.  ( 

In  the  same  year  he  carried  on  war  with  another  people,  whose 
geographical  position  cannot  have  been  very  remote,  and  whose 
names  may  be  variously  read  Remanen  or  Lemnnen,  Rotno  or 
Ludnu,  owing  to  the  ambiguity  of  the  letters  which  stand  for  L  or 
R,  T  or  D  in  the  phonetic  alphabet.  They  have  gone  forth  in 
chariots  to  meet  the  king,  but  have  been  utterly  routed.  Their 
physiognomy,  dress  and  armor  are  very  different  from  those  of 
the  Shos;  they  have  less  pointed  features  ;  their  heads  are  covered 
with  a  cap,  which  descends  to  protect  the  back  of  the  neck,  and  is 
fastened  by  a  band  ;  they  wear  long  garments,  with  a  girdle  at 
the  waist  and  a  deep  cape  over  the  shoulders.  A  fortress  is  near, 
on  the  battlements  of  which  the  defenders  are  standing  and  hold- 
ing out  their  hands  apparently  in  supplication  to  Menephthah.  In 
the  next  compartment  the  king  has  descended  from  his  chariot  and 
holds  the  reins  behind  him,  while  he  turns  to  address  the  chiefs  of 
the  defeated  people,  who  supplicate  him  on  their  knees.  Others 
of  the  same  nation  are  felling  the  trees  of  a  wood,  perhaps  those 
which  surrounded  their  fortress  and  added  to  its  strength  ;  for  a 
fortress  is  seen  in  the  distance,  with  its  gate-posts  and  architrave 
falling,  as  if  to  indicate  that  it  had  been  captured  and  dismantled. 
The  whole  concludes  with  a  triumphal  procession,  in  honor  of  the 
two  campaigns.  The  king  is  seen  mounting  his  chariot,  lifting 
two  of  the  conquered  nations,  who  are  powerfully  grasped  in  his 
right  arm,  while  two  files,  with  their  hands  tied,  and  bound  round 
the  neck  by  a  rope  which  the  conqueror  holds,  are  following  him. 
In  a  similar  way  the  captive  Shos  are  led  in  triumph,  and  three  of 
their  heads  are  fixed  on  the  back  of  the  royal  chariot.  Egyptians, 
men  and  women,  come  forth  to  meet  him ;  some  kneel,  others  are 
standing  and  lifting  up  their  hands  in  sign  of  reverence  and  wel- 
come; and  a  company  of  priests,  distinguished  by  their  shorn 

vol.  it.  10 


218 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Leads,  offer  large  nosegays  of  the  lotus,  the  characteristic  produc- 
tion of  the  land1.  The  whole  scene  is  bordered  by  the  Nile,  suffi- 
ciently marked  by  the  crocodiles  with  which  it  is  filled  ;  and  a 
palace  stands  on  the  bank2.  The  date  of  the  first  year  of  the 
reign  of  Menephthah  is  repeated  in  the  hieroglyphics  at  this  place  ; 
a  presumption  that  the  scene  of  the  events  cannot  have  been  very 
remote  from  the  frontiers  of  Egypt.  The  whole  finishes  with  the 
presentation  of  the  prisoners  of  the  land  of  Luden  to  the  Theban 
triad  of  gods,  Amunre,  Maut  and  Chons,  and  an  offering  of  vases. 
The  inscription  declares  them  to  be  fabricated  out  of  their  spoils  in 
gold,  silver,  copper,  and  the  unknown  substance  chesebt*,  and  pre- 
cious stones.  Their  devices  are  emblematic  of  the  event  which  they 
record  ;  one  of  them  is  supported  by  figures  of  captives ;  on 
another  the  head  of  a  prisoner  appears  as  bent  down  by  grief,  and 
in  the  hieroglyphics  above  them  they  are  called  "  images  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  strange  lands4." 

No  date  is  found  with  the  scene  next  represented,  in  which  the 
king  is  attacking  a  fortress,  the  name  of  which  has  been  read 
Oisch  or  Atet,  situated  in  the  land  of  Amar  or  Omar6.  The  people 
who  have  been  defending  it,  resemble  in  their  features  the  Shos,  in 
costume  the  Remanen.  They  fight  in  chariots,  and  inhabit  a 
mountainous  and  woody  country,  through  which  herds  of  cattle 

1  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  xlvi-1. 

a  A  bridge  over  the  stream  is  here  represented,  a  thing  which  occurs 
nowhere  else  among  the  Egyptian  monuments.  It  is  probably  laid  over 
one  of  the  smaller  streams  of  Lower  Egypt,  where  the  kings  would  natu- 
rally fix  their  residence  when  they  were  carrying  on  campaigns  in  Asia. 

3  See  p  192  of  this  volume. 

4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  1,  p.  333. 

5  Birch  in  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.,  2nd  Series,  vol.  2,  p.  335.  It  is  conjectured  by 
him  to  be  Haditha  on  the  Euphrates,  by  Dr.  E.  Hi  neks  to  be  Edessa,  by 
Mr.  Osburn,  Hadashah  (Josh.  xv.  37),  and  Amar  to  be  the  land  of  the  Amo- 
rites.  Rosellini  compares  Omar  with  Omira,  the  name  which  the  Euphrates 
bore  previous  to  its  passage  through  Mount  Taurus  (Pliny,  N.  H.  5,  24). 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


219 


are  flying  in  consternation  at  the  fray.  The  king  is  armed  with 
bow  and  arrows,  and  also  with  a  short  spear,  which  serves  either  to 
hurl  from  a  little  distance,  or  to  stab  in  close  fight.  The  rest  of  the 
events  of  this  campaign  are  lost  by  the  destruction  of  the  wall ; 
but  it  appears  to  have  concluded  with  the  usual  offering  of  vases 
and  prisoners  to  Amunre. 

It  is  probable  that  the  war,  which  is  the  subject  of  the  next 
representation,  occurred  at  a  considerably  later  period  of  the  reign 
of  Menephthah,  since  his  son  Rameses  appears  serving  in  the  cam- 
paign1. Taken  or  Token  is  the  name  of  the  people  against  whom 
it  is  waged,  the  Tahai  who  are  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the 
statistical  tablet  of  Karnak2,  and  who  are  declared  to  belong  to 
the  Rotno  or  Ludnu.  They  wear  helmets,  from  which  a  strap  or 
strip  of  metal  depends,  for  the  protection  of  the  cheek,  and  the 
chiefs  are  distinguished  by  two  feathers  in  the  helmet.  The  general 
of  the  enemy,  who  is  represented  as  of  an  intermediate  size  between 
his  own  troops  and  the  gigantic  figure  of  Menephthah,  has  been 
pierced  in  the  breast  by  one  of  the  king's  short  spears,  and  then 
caught  round  the  neck  by  his  bow  ;  and  with  the  uplifted  scimitar 
in  his  hand  he  is  preparing  to  put  him  to  death.  In  another  com- 
partment he  appears  dismounted  from  his  chariot  and  about  to 
stab  with  a  short  spear  a  chief  who  has  been  also  pierced  in  the 
breast  with  an  arrow.  The  captives  are  as  usual  led  in  files  to  be 
presented  to  the  god.  Among  the  offerings,  besides  the  customary 
vases,  are  bags  tied  up,  probably  containing  gold  dust  or  precious 
stones. 

The  people  who  are  called  Sketo  or  Shetin  are  the  subject  of 
another  of  the  great  historical  pictures  of  the  wars  of  Menephthah. 
Unlike  all  those  who  have  been  described  before,  they  use  cavalry3 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iiL  1,  378.    M.  R.  tav.  liv.-lvL 
a  See  p.  187,  188  of  this  volume. 

1  It  is  remarkable  that  the  horses  have  neither  saddle  nor  bridle,  in  this 
respect  resembling  the  Numidiun  cavalry.    "Nihil  primo  adspectu  contem- 


220 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


as  well  as  chariots  in  the  field.  They  are  clothed  in  long  tunics, 
girt  round  the  middle  and  with  sleeves,  but  these  do  not  descend 
below  the  elbow.  They  have  no  beard  ;  their  heads  are  covered 
with  a  scull-cap  which  reaches  to  the  shoulders  and  protects  the 
back  of  the  neck  ;  the  top  is  ornamented  with  a  tassel,  and  the 
side  of  the  neck  defended  by  a  strip  which  extends  to  the  breast. 
They  have  square  shields  with  bows.  The  arrows  of  the  king  dis- 
perse them,  and  the  war  ends  with  a  procession,  in  which  captives 
and  chariots  are  led  before  Amunre,  who  on  this  occasion  is 
attended  by  Pasht,  Chons  and  Thmei.  With  this  scene  ends  the 
representation  of  the  wars  and  triumphs  of  Setei-Menephthah  on 
the  wall  of  the  palace  of  Karnak.  They  are  summed  up,  as  it 
were,  in  a  vast  emblematic  picture,  in  which  the  king  appears  of 
gigantic  size,  grasping  by  the  hair  captives  of  nine  different  nations, 
who  are  fastened  to  a  stake,  and  preparing  to  strike  them  with  a 
ponderous  mace,  loaded  with  a  ball  of  metal  at  the  end,  while 
Amunre  stretches  out  towards  him  the  scimitar  or  skopsh,  the 
emblem  of  destruction  and  power1.  Among  these  nine  nations  we 
recognize  distinctly  the  negro  of  the  interior  of  Africa  ;  the  others, 
though  not  so  strongly  characterized,  correspond  generally  in  fea- 
tures and  head-dress  with  the  nations  already  represented  as  con- 
quered by  Menephthah.  Naharaina  or  Mesopotamia  is  mentioned 
in  an  inscription,  partly  mutilated,  above  the  figure  of  the  king. 
Elsewhere  we  have  seen  the  conqueror  leading  the  vanquished 
nations  to  the  god  ;  but  here  Amunre  himself  holds  the  cords  to 
which  their  symbolical  representations  are  attached.  He  is  accom- 
panied by  a  goddess,  supposed  to  be  the  land  of  Egypt2,  who  also 
holds  three  cords.    The  different  tribes  or  towns  (for  probably 

tius  ;  equi  hominesque  paulluli  et  graciles;  discinctus  et  inermis  eques  prse- 
terquam  quod  jaeula  secum  portat;  equi  sine  frenis."    (Liv.  35,  11.) 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  lvii.-lxi. 

2  The  same  apparently  who  is  given  with  slight  variation  in  Sir  G.  Wil- 
kinson's Plates,  58,  3,  and  called  KoM,  i.  e.  "the  land." 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


221 


they  are  no  more)  are  designated  by  an  embattled  oval,  within 
which  the  name  is  written,  and  over  which  is  placed  a  head  and 
shoulders,  the  cord  being  fastened  round  the  neck,  and  the  arms 
bound.  Of  these  ovals  fifty-six  are  still  legible,  and  several  others 
obliterated.  Among  those  who  belong  to  the  race  of  Cush,  a  few 
names  seem  to  bear  some  analogy  to  those  known  to  geography, 
as  the  Barobro,  the  Takrurir,  the  Erk,  supposed  to  answer  respec- 
tively to  the  Barabra  and  Berber,  the  Dakruri  of  Upper  Nubia,  and 
Erchoas  on  the  Nile1,  but  in  most  of  them  no  resemblance  can  be 
traced.  Some  of  the  characters  do  not  belong  to  the  general  pho- 
netic alphabet,  and  their  sound  is  unknown.  The  features  of  the 
negro  in  the  group  grasped  by  the  king  indicate  that  he  came  from 
a  country  far  to  the  South,  unless  we  are  to  suppose  that  tribes  of 
this  physiognomy  extended  further  northward  in  ancient  times. 
The  third  file  led  by  the  god,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  oval, 
is  of  northern  nations2.  Of  those  whom  the  goddess  leads,  the 
first  oval  contains  a  group  of  characters  which  Champollion  reads 
Nemone,  and  supposes  lo  signify  shepherds  (from  the  Coptic  Moone, 
to  feed),  and  to  denote  generally  foreigners  of  the  Xorth.  The 
next  are  the  Shetin,  Naharainar  the  Rotnu  or  Ludnu,  Upper  and 
Lower,  and  Sinjar.  Of  the  rest,  though  many  of  them  are  dis- 
tinctly written,  little  can  be  made.  Names  of  places  in  Palestine 
have  been  found  in  them8,  and  nothing  is  in  itself  more  probable 
than  that  conquests  in  this  country  should  be  recorded  on  the  monu- 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  1,  421.    Birch,  GalL  Br.  Mus.  2,  89. 

2  This  assumes  the  papyrus-plant,  which  the  second  and  third  ovals  con- 
tain, to  denote  the  Xorth,  as  it  often  does.  Rosellini  (p.  425)  thinks,  from 
its  similarity  with  the  character  answering  to  'E\\t)vikois  on  the  Rosetta 
Stone,  that  it  shoold  be  read  Aoninin,  and  understood  of  the  Ionians  of 
Asia,  I  doubt  if  in  this  age  the  Ionians  were  found  on  the  coast  of  Asia, 
and  were  this  reading  phonetically  correct,  should  rather  connect  it  with 
Tdvj;,  the  ancient  name  of  Gaza  (Dion.  Perieget  1,  92,  with  the  note  of 
Eustathius). 

8  Osburn,  Onomasticon,  Ancient  Egypt,  p.  156 


222 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


ments  of  Egyptian  kings  ;  but  their  identification  with  biblical 
names  is  not  sufficiently  supported  to  warrant  our  proposing  them 
as  facts. 

There  is  much  probability  in  the  opinion  of  Rosellini,  that  we 
should  read  the  name  of  the  Rotnu,  Ludin,  and  that  the  Lydians 
are  meant ;  not  using  this  word  in  the  limited  sense  to  which  the 
Greek  writers  have  accustomed  us,  but  as  a  general  name  for  Asia 
Minor  and  its  prolongation  to  the  country  at  the  sources  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates.  Two  wholly  different  nations  are  evidently 
described  in  Scripture  under  the  name  of  Lud.  One  of  these 
(Gen.  x.  13)  is  called  a  son  of  Mizraim,  and  is  mentioned  by  Jere- 
miah with  Ethiopia  and  Libya  (xlvi.  9)  as  an  ally  of  Egypt.  The 
other  (Gen.  x.  22)  is  called  a  son  of  Shem,  and  mentioned  in  con- 
nexion with  Arphaxad  (Arrapachitis  in  Northern  Assyria),  and 
Aram  or  Syria.  This  is  the  position  in  which  a  name  might  be 
expected  to  occur  which  represents  the  Semitic  population  of  Asia 
Minor.  These  Ludim,  not  the  African  nation  of  the  same  name, 
appear  to  be  meant  in  Ezek.  xxvii.  10,  where  they  are  joined  with 
Persia  and  Libya  as  furnishing  mercenaries  to  Tyre.  To  this 
Semitic  population  was  probably  owing  the  manifest  connexion 
between  the  mythology  of  Lydia  and  that  of  Assyria1,  and  the 
early  civilization  of  Lydia,  which  through  the  Greek  colonies  settled 
on  its  shores  became  a  source  of  refinement  and  culture  to  all 
Europe. 

"We  have  already  described  among  the  sepulchres  of  Thebes,  the 
tomb  and  sarcophagus  of  Setei-Menephthah,  discovered  by  Belzoni 
in  the  Bab-el-Melook2.  It  is  the  most  splendid  that  has  hitherto 
been  explored,  and  the  plates  to  Belzoni's  work  will  give  a  good 

1  Comp.  Herod.  1,  7,  where  Agron,  the  first  of  the  Heracleid  kings  of 
Lydia,  is  made  the  son  of  Xinus  the  son  of  Belus.  The  predecessors  of  Agron 
were  descended  from  Lydus  the  son  of  Atys,  who  represents  a  Phrygian 
population  e  arlier  tha  n  the  connexion  wi  Assyria. 

9  VoL  i.  p.  141. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


223 


idea  of  the  variety  and  richness  of  its  decorations.  It  contains  a 
representation  which  we  find  repeated  with  some  variation  in  the 
tombs  of  other  kings  of  this  and  the  succeeding  dynasty,  and  which 
seems  designed  to  express  the  universality  of  Egyptian  dominion. 
The  god  Horus,  the  symbol  of  royalty,  is  preceded  by  four  com- 
panies of  men,  of  different  color,  physiognomy,  and  costume.  The 
first  are  plainly  Egyptians ;  the  third  are  blacks ;  the  second  white 
with  bushy  black  hair,  blue  eyes,  aquiline  noses,  and  reddish  beards ; 
they  wear  short  parti-colored  tunics,  with  several  tassels  at  the 
lower  extremities.  The  fourth  resemble  the  people  called  Rebo  in 
the  campaigns  of  Rameses  IV.,  wearing  feathers  in  their  heads,  and 
large  cloaks,  and  'having  their  bodies  tattooed.  The  Egyptians 
have  the  name  Hot,  supposed  to  signify  race,  as  if  they  identified 
themselves  with  mankind ;  the  blacks  that  of  Naksu ;  the  third 
group  are  called  Namu,  and  the  fourth  Tamhu.  The  Nahsu  are 
represented  with  variety  of  dress  and  physiognomy  in  the  other 
tombs,  but  always  black ;  the  Namu  are  elsewhere  drawn  with  an 
entirely  different  costume ;  and  the  Tamhu  are  made  yellow  instead 
of  fair,  and  have  ample  garments  worked  in  elaborate  patterns, 
instead  of  the  cloaks  which  half  cover  their  tattooed  bodies1.  The 
two  names  therefore  appear  to  be  generic,  and  to  comprehend  races 
ethnographically  distinct.  The  people  called  in  the  sculptures  of 
the  wars  of  Menephthah,  Remenen,  or  Lemenen,  and  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  land  of  Omar,  belonged  to  the  Namu ;  the  Tohen  to 
the  Tamhu.  In  the  same  way  Nahsu  is  the  generic  name  of  the 
black  nations,  and  Cush  the  specific  name  of  the  Ethiopians.  Taken 
together  they  appear  to  have  conventionally  represented  the  prin- 
cipal nations  known  to  the  Egyptians,  and  as  their  wars  did  not 
extend  to  Europe,  we  must  seek  the  originals  in  Asia,  the  Namu 
in  the  Semitic  nations,  the  Tamhu  in  those  who  dwelt  eastward  of 
the  Tigris. 

The  monuments  do  not  afford  us  data  for  fixing  the  length  of 
1  Rosellini,  M.  S.  4,  228,  M.  R.  tav.  civ.  Ac. 


224 


HISTORY  OP  EGYPT. 


Setei-Menepiith all's  reign.  The  Setbos  of  the  lists  is  said  to  have 
reigned  fifty-one  or  fifty-five  years,  and  the  magnitude  and  elabo- 
rate decoration  of  the  tomb  of  Setei-Menephthah,  as  well  as  his 
recorded  conquests,  show  that  his  reign  cannot  have  been  a  short 
one.  The  name  of  one  of  his  queens  appears  to  have  been  Tivea, 
the  mother  of  Rameses  II.  and  III. ;  of  another,  Tsire1. 

The  shields  of  all  the  sovereigns  hitherto  mentioned  on  the 
tablet  of  Abydos  contain  titles  only,  and  their  phonetic  names  have 
been  ascertained  from  other  monuments.  That  of  the  successor  of 
'  Setei-Menephthah,  however,  is  followed  by  a  shield  which  contains 
a  phonetic  name,  and  closes  the  last  line  but  one ;  this  name  is 
Rameses  Mei-Amun,  and  it  is  repeated  along  with  the  titular  shield 
through  the  whole  length  of  the  lowest  line.  But  the  titular  shield 
of  the  lowest  line  is  not  exactly  the  same  as  the  last  titular  shield 
of  the  upper  line ;  it  differs  from  it  by  the  addition  of  a  group  of 
characters  which  is  usually  interpreted,  "  Approved  by  Re2."  The 
lateral  column  of  the  tablet,  again,  exhibits  only  the  shield  without 
the  addition.  Hence  arises  the  question,  do  these  two  titular 
shields  represent  two  sovereigns,  Rameses  Meiamun  II.  and  Rame- 
ses Meiamun  III.,  or  is  the  addition  in  the  second  shield  merely  a 
difference,  assumed  by  the  same  sovereign  at  a  subsequent  period 
of  his  reign  ?  Such  variations,  perplexing  as  they  are,  appear  to 
have  been  practised.  The  obelisk  of  the  Atmeidan,  already  men- 
tioned, exhibits  four  several  additions  to  the  characters  which  form 
the  titular  shield  of  Thothmes  III.3,  and  one  of  them  is  this  same 
group,  "  approved  by  Re."  Again,  the  same  tomb  in  the  Bab-el- 
Melook  was  found  to  contain  two  shields,  one  which  has,  the  other 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  251,  270. 

2  Compare  the  shields,  11,  12,  &  13,  in  the  Hieroglyphic  Plates,  II.  vol.  i. 
No.  12  is  the  phonetic  name  belonging  to  both;  no.  13  has  the  group  of 
characters  at  the  bottom  which  is  read  Sotp-n-ra,  "  approved  by  Ra,"  which 
is  wanting  in  no.  11. 

8  See  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  2,  228,  2nd  Series. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


225 


which  has  not  the  addition  "approved  by  Re;"  and  hence  Major 
Felix  and  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  were  led  to  the  conclusion,  that 
they  indicated  only  one  sovereign,  Rameses  II.  The  colossal  statue 
which  lies  reversed  at  Mitrahenny  has  on  the  girdle  both  shields, 
one  with,  one  without  "  approved  by  Re."  At  Beitoualli  the  shield 
is  four  times  repeated,  once  with  the  addition  "  approved  by  Re." 
The  processions  of  the  kings  at  the  Rameseion  and  Medinet  Aboo 
exhibit  only  the  shield  with  the  addition1.  These  are  strong  rea- 
sons for  believing  that  only  one  king  is  designated  by  both  shields. 
Yet  a  great  difficulty  attends  this  supposition :  the  names  of  their 
wives  and  their  children  are  different,  and  it  would  be  too  arbi- 
trary a  mode  of  proceeding  to  assume  a  second  marriage  and  the 
death  of  the  children  of  the  first.  Rosellini  adds2,  that  the  physi- 
ognomy of  the  two  kings  is  so  different,  that  even  at  a  distance 
they  can  be  distinguished  by  one  who  is  familiar  with  them.  This 
argument  can  be  appreciated  only  by  those  who  have  seen  the 
monuments  of  Egypt  on  the  spot ;  yet  the  evidence  of  one  who 
spent  so  many  months  among  them  must  be  admitted  to  be  of 
great  weight.  It  is  also  alleged3,  that  in  more  than  one  instance 
the  title  "  approved  by  Re"  has  been  inserted  in  a  shield  in  which 
it  had  not  been  originally  found,  by  a  cancelling  of  the  previous 
inscription — an  act  not  likely  to  have  been  performed  by  a  sove- 
reign on  his  own  shield,  though  we  find  a  son  using  this  liberty 
with  the  shield  of  his  father.  Rosellini  assures  us  also  that  he  has 
found  dates  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  from  the  second  year  to  the 
sixty-second,  all  containing  the  addition  "approved  by  Re,"  and  it 
is  difficult  to  conceive  that  he  should  before  the  first  of  these  dates 
have  performed  those  exploits  and  executed  those  w^orks,  to  which 
the  shield  without  the  addition  is  attached.  Where  obelisks  have 
been  begun  by  one  monarch  and  finished  by  another,  the  central 
line  marks  the  work  of  the  first.    Now  the  central  inscription  on 

1  Rosellini,  1£  Stor.  1,  p.  205.  3  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  1,  25fi,  ML 

8  Rosellini,  u.  s.  Birch,  Gall.  B.  Mus.  P.  2,  p.  91,  note  11. 

10* 


226 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


three  of  the  faces  of  the  obelisk  transported  from  Luxor  to  Paris 
bears  the  shield  without  the  addition ;  so  does  that  which  remains 
at  Luxor  on  one  of  its  faces ;  the  others  bear  the  shield  with  the 
addition.  Without  concealing  the  difficulties  which  press  on  either 
hypothesis,  I  assume,  as  most  probable  according  to  the  present 
state  of  the  question,  that  the  two  shields  represent  two  kings,  and 
I  shall  proceed  to  give  an  account  of  the  monuments  which  bear 
their  respective  names. 

To  Rameses  II.  belong  the  historical  pictures  and  sculptures  of 
Beitoualli  near  Kalabshe  in  Nubia,  casts  of  which,  colored  accord- 
ing to  the  original,  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum1.  The 
sanctuary  represents  the  youthful  monarch  suckled  by  Isis  and 
Anouke.  The  walls  of  the  vestibule  exhibit  on  the  left  his 
triumphs  over  the  Ethiopian  nations.  Mounted  in  his  chariot 
armed  with  his  bow,  and  accompanied  by  two  of  his  sons  who  are 
also  in  chariots,  he  slaughters  and  tramples  down  the  negroes  who 
fly  in  confusion  towards  a  village  indicated  by  its  palms.  A 
wrounded  man,  supported  by  two  others,  is  feebly  making  his  way 
to  a  cottage  within  which  the  mother  is  cooking.  A  child  and 
another  female  stand  beside  the  door  with  expressions  of  sympathy 
and  terror.  Conquerors  have  been  fond  in  all  ages  of  recording 
the  carnage  of  their  battle-fields,  but  this  is  a  solitary  instance  of 
their  completing  the  picture  by  an  exhibition  of  the  misery  which 
war  brings  to  the  cottage-hearth.  The  fruits  of  the  victory  are 
exhibited  in  a  procession,  in  which  the  same  productions  of  Africa, 
which  have  been  already  described  in  speaking  of  the  reign  of 
Thothmes  III.,  are  brought  before  the  king,  who  is  seated  under  a 
rich  canopy.  Immediately  before  him  stands  his  son,  who  is  intro- 
ducing into  his  presence  "the  royal  son  of  the  land  of  Cush, 
Anemophth."  Rosellini  thought  that  he  was  brought  as  a  pri- 
soner, but  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  two  attendants  are 


1  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  lxil-lxxv.    Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  pi.  38,  p.  2. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


227 


arraying  him  in  garments  of  state,  previous  to  his  appearance 
before  the  king ;  and  that  the  vase  which  Rosellini  supposed  to 
contain  a  restorative  potion,  holds  water  or  perfume.  In  another 
part  of  the  procession  the  same  Anemophth  brings  on  his  shoul- 
ders skins  of  panthers,  rings  of  gold  and  exotic  plants,  and  the 
connection  of  the  different  parts  of  the  picture  is  probably  to  be 
conceived  of  in  this  way,  that  having  deposited  his  offerings  before 
the  king,  he  is  rewarded  by  receiving  the  investiture  described 
above.  From  his  features  and  dress  he  is  evidently  of  Egyptian 
race,  and  therefore  probably  of  a  family  which  had  enjoyed  the 
viceroyalty  of  Ethiopia  since  the  commencement  of  Egyptian  con- 
quests in  that  country. 

The  left  side  of  the  vestibule  contains  representations  of  the 
Asiatic  victories  of  Rameses  II.  The  people  with  whom  he  is 
engaged  are  those  whom  we  have  already  become  acquainted  with, 
in  the  historical  monuments  of  Setei-Menephthah's  reign.  In  one 
compartment  the  king  appears  mounted  in  his  chariot  and  pur- 
suing a  host  of  men  of  yellow  complexion,  short  and  peaked  beards 
and  a  sharp  physiognomy,  variously  armed  with  scimitars,  javelins 
and  throwsticks1.  In  the  inscriptions  which  are  legible  their  name 
does  not  occur,  but  they  closely  resemble  those  who  on  the  wal.s 
of  Karnak  are  called  the  Shos,  and  whom  we  have  concluded  to 
be  a  tribe  of  Palestine.  Next  he  is  seen  attacking  a  fortress,  in 
the  upper  story  of  which  is  a  chief  whom  he  grasps  by  his  helmet 
and  is  preparing  to  behead  with  his  scimitar.  On  the  lower  story 
are  several  figures,  in  attitudes  expressive  of  distress  and  consterna- 
tion. One  man  holds  out  a  censer  towards  the  conqueror,  as  if  in 
propitiation  of  a  god  ;  two  females  are  imploring  his  clemency  ;  a 
third,  with  similar  purpose,  is  holding  her  child  from  the  battle- 
ments, from  which  a  man  is  also  precipitating  himself.  A  prince 
armed  with  an  axe  approaches  the  gate  of  the  fortress  to  break  it  open. 


Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  pi.  lxvii. 


228 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


No  name  occurs  in  any  part  of  this  scene  ;  but  the  costume  is  that 
of  the  people  whose  name  is  read  by  Rosellini  Shomui,  by  Champol- 
lion  Shan  or  Kharu\  and  supposed  to  be  Syrians.  Men  of  the 
same  nation  appear  in  the  next  compartment  to  be  brought  before 
the  king  to  receive  their  doom.  He  stands  on  a  board  beneath 
which  two  of  them  are  lying  prostrate,  and  thus  literally  made  his 
footstool ;  he  grasps  three  by  the  head,  and  the  prince  leads  a  file 
of  others  to  him  bound.  A  similar  scene  is  represented  in  another 
compartment,  where  the  king  holds  his  scimitar  over  the  head  of 
a  kneeling  prisoner  of  Asiatic  race.  Finally  he  is  seen,  seated  on 
his  throne,  with  a  lion  having  his  fore-paws  bound  couched  at  his 
feet.  Egyptians,  evidently  of  military  rank  bearing  emblems  of 
victory,  stand  in  order  before  him,  and  one  of  the  princes  of 
the  blood  brings  three  Asiatic  prisoners  bound.  The  inscription 
appears  to  be  a  general  summary  of  the  triumphs  recorded  on 
both  walls,  mention  being  made  of  victories  over  the  Cushites  as 
well  as  the  Shari2. 

This  is  the  principal  historical  monument  of  Rameses  II.'s 
reign ;  for  the  obelisks  of  Luxor  contain  nothing  beyond  the  cus- 
tomary pompous  and  mystical  phrases.  It  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, that  the  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  appears  to  have  been 
begun,  but  not  carried  on  far  by  him.  From  this  and  other  cir- 
cumstances it  has  been  concluded  that  his  reign  was  not  long. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Rameses  III.  That  he  was  the  brother 
of  his  predecessor  appears  from  the  Menephtheion3  already  men- 
tioned, in  which  both  of  them  stand  before  the  figure  of  Meneph- 
thah,  and  the  inscription  declares  that  they  have  come  to  render 
homage  to  their  father4.  We  have  seen  however  that  Rameses 
II.  had  sons,  and  therefore  we  must  suppose  that  they  were  dead, 
or  what  is  more  probable,  that  their  uncle  set  them  aside  and 

1  See  p.  192  of  this  vol.    Vol.  i.  pp.  262,  263. 
-  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  18. 

3  See  p.  215  of  this  vol.  4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  p.  263. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


229 


mounted  the  throne — a  proceeding  not  unsuitable  to  his  energetic 
character.  He  may  even  have  dated  his  accession  from  his 
father's  death.  That  Rameses  III.  is  the  Sesostris  of  Herodotus 
is  no  longer  doubtful.  Herodotus  says  that  he  had  himself  seen 
in  "  Palestine  of  Syria1 "  the  tablet  which  Sesostris  set  up  in  com- 
memoration of  his  conquest.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Nahr-el-Kelb, 
the  ancient  Lycus,  not  far  from  Beiroot,  three  such  tablets  are 
found,  exhibiting  an  Egyptian  king  in  the  customary  posture  of 
smiting  his  enemies.  His  name  is  not  preserved,  but  the  titular 
shield  is  that  of  Rameses  III.  with  the  characters  "  approved  of 
Re."  Further,  Herodotus  relates  that  Sesostris  on  his  return  to 
Egypt  set  up  a  colossal  statue  of  himself,  thirty  cubits  (forty-five 
feet)  in  height,  before  the  temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis.  At  Mitra- 
henny  we  have  seen  that  a  colossal  statue  still  exists2,  forty-eight 
feet  in  height,  bearing  not  only  the  titular  shield,  but  the  phonetic 
name  of  Rameses  III.  This  proof  is  not  so  cogent  as  the  preced- 
ing, because  we  are  not  sure  that  this  is  the  statue  of  which  Hero- 
dotus speaks,  but  even  alone  it  would  have  furnished  a  strong 
argument  for  the  identity  of  the  Sesostris  of  Herodotus  with  this 
king.  It  does  not  prove  that  he  was  called  Sesostris  in  the  Egyp- 
tian annals  ;  but  it  shows  that  one  remarkable  circumstance  which 
Herodotus  relates  of  Sesostris  is  historically  true  of  Rameses  III., 
and  justifies  our  application  of  the  written  history,  in  which  no 
Rameses  appears,  to  the  monumental,  in  which  the  name  of  Sesos- 
tris is  not  found.  That  we  should  be  able  to  frame  from  their 
union  a  narrative  in  which  every  part  of  both  shall  find  a  place,  is 
not  to  be  expected.    Diodorus  complains  that  the  Greeks  did  not 

1  Trans,  of  Royal  Soe.  Lit  vol.  3,  p.  105,  PI.  1,  2,  1st  Series.  Possibly 
this  may  explain  the  tablets  lv  rj?  HtpiaSiK?,  yrj  Kcijxtvwv  from  which,  accord- 
ing to  Syncellus  (p.  40,  73,  ed.  Dind.),  the  Pseud  o-Manetho  in  the  Sothis 
professed  to  have  derived  his  history.  The  inscriptions  in  the  Wadi 
Mokuttub  are  hardly  of  sufficient  antiquity  to  be  referred  to. 

»  VoL  i.  p.  9t. 


230 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


agree  with  one  another  in  what  they  related  of  Sesostris  (his 
Sesoosis),  nor  the  priests  with  those  who  panegyrized  him  in  song1. 
He  himself  begins  his  narrative  with  a  circumstance  which  betrays 
its  own  origin  in  popular  and  poetical  fiction.  It  is  a  characteristic 
of  such  fictions  to  represent  the  birth  and  earliest  years  of  those 
who  are  afterwards  to  play  a  distinguished  part,  as  corresponding 
with  their  subsequent  celebrity.  The  father  of  Sesostris  collected 
together  all  the  male  children  who  were  born  in  Egypt  on  the 
same  day  with  him,  and  caused  them  all  to  be  educated  together, 
that  early  familiarity  might  prepare  them  for  friendly  co-operation2. 
Their  training  was  such  as  the  future  conquerors  of  the  world  from 
India  to  Thrace  might  well  need  ;  none  was  allowed  to  take  food 
in  the  morning  till  he  had  run  180  stadia,  at  least  eighteen  miles. 
While  yet  a  youth  he  was  sent  with  his  companions  by  his  father 
to  undergo  a  still  further  hardening  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  and 
subdued  its  inhabitants,  on  whom  the  yoke  had  never  been 
imposed  before.  Next  he  was  dispatched  to  the  west,  where  he 
subdued  also  the  greater  part  of  Libya.  That  some  reason  might 
appear  why  his  father  anticipated  such  celebrity  for  his  son  and 
educated  him  accordingly,  it  was  said  that  Hephaistos  appeared  to 
him  in  his  sleep  and  foretold  that  the  child  who  was  about  to  be 
born  should  be  the  conqueror  of  the  world.  On  his  father's  death, 
either  relying  on  this  oracle,  or  persuaded  by  his  daughter  Athvr- 
tis,  who  was  endowed  with  superior  sagacity  to  all  other  women, 
or  had  acquired  her  knowledge  by  divination,  he  determined  to 
undertake  an  expedition. 

1  Diod.  1,  53. 

3  Jomard,  Description  d'Egypte,  Memoires,  9,  151,  calculates,  that  if, 
when  Sesostris  was  twenty  years  of  age,  more  than  1700  males,  as  Diodorus 
says  (1,  54),  were  living,  born  on  the  same  day  with  him,  6800  children 
must  have  been  born  every  day  of  the  year,  and  the  whole  population  of 
Egypt  must  have  been  72,722,600.  The  scythe  of  statistics  mows  down 
unmercifully  the  exuberances  of  mythology  and  rhetoric. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


231 


We  recognize  here  plainly  enough  the  exaggerations  natural  to 
the  story  of  an  heroic  conqueror,  whose  memory  has  been  fondly 
cherished  by  the  people  and  celebrated  in  popular  poetry.  Hero- 
dotus relates  no  prodigies  or  incredible  facts  respecting  the  child- 
hood of  his  Sesostris,  but  he  makes  his  first  expedition  to  be  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  people  who  dwelt  on  the  shores  of  the  Ery- 
thraean Sea,  that  is  the  Indian  Ocean.  If  he  built  his  fleet  of  ships 
of  war  in  some  of  the  harbors  on  the  western  side  of  the  Red  Sea, 
and  with  them  passed  the  Straits  of  Babelmandeb  to  subdue  the 
Ethiopians,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  his  further  progress 
could  be  stopped,  as  Herodotus  says,  by  shallows.  If,  however,  as 
Diodorus  represents1,  he  made  a  land  expedition  into  Ethiopia,  and 
as  he  and  Strabo  say,  from  that  coast  entered  the  Arabian  Gulf, 
he  might  naturally  enough  be  stopped  by  shallows,  for  the  sand- 
banks and  coral-reefs  make  navigation  along  its  shores  towards 
the  northern  end  dangerous  in  the  extreme  to  all  who  are  not 
familiar  with  them.  These  difficulties  were  experienced  by  JElius 
Gall  us  when  he  undertook  his  expedition  from  the  head  of  the 
Gulf,  against  the  Arabs,  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  ;  and  the  tides 
of  the  Red  Sea,  which  embarrassed  his  navigation,  must  have  been 
still  more  formidable  to  Egyptian  sailors  in  the  reign  of  Sesostris2. 
A  fleet  for  the  navigation  of  this  sea  would  be  more  easily 
constructed  on  the  coast  of  Ethiopia,  which  abounded  with  wood, 
than  at  Suez,  Myos  Hormos  or  Berenice,  where  no  timber  what- 
ever is  to  be  found.  The  subsequent  exaggerations  of  Diodorus, 
who  makes  Sesostris  conquer  the  whole  sea-coast  to  India,  and 
even  pass  the  Ganges  and  reach  the  Eastern  Ocean,  do  not  belong 
to  the  poetical  fictions  of  the  ancient  Egyptians ;  they  indicate  the 
corruption  of  history  from  a  more  recent  source — the  desire  of  the 

1  Diod.  1,  55.    Strabo,  16,  p.  769. 

*  Syllseus,  who  undertook  to  be  his  pilot,  exposed  his  fleet  to  danger 

fia%iats  dXifievoig  napa0a\cl)v,  ?/  ^oipiSoiv  itfiiXwv  ftearais  17  Tt£>ayu>&tai  '  i:\tlaTov  6i  al 
rr\r)niivpi6es  i\vnovv  kuI  al  d/^TraJrctj.    (Strabo,  16,  p.  780.) 


232 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


priests  to  exalt  the  conquests  of  Sesostris  above  those  of  the  Mace- 
donians, under  whose  dominion  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  had 
fallen.  Diodorus,  who  assigns  him  600,000  infantry,  24,000 
cavalry  and  27,000  chariots,  includes  the  Cyclades  in  his  conquests  ; 
Dictearchiis1,  "  the  greater  part  of  Europe." 

The  Greek  historians  represent  Sesostris  as  of  unusually  lofty 
stature  ;  Herodotus,  according  to  the  probable  meaning  of  his 
words,  six  feet  nine  inches2 ;  and  this  may  perhaps  be  a  cause  why 
he  seems  to  have  drawn  to  himself  the  fame  of  the  Thothmes  and 
Menephthah,  whose  names  are  passed  over  by  them.  In  the  Egyp- 
tian battle-pieces  the  sovereign  is  always  of  gigantic  size,  and  to 
those  who  could  not  read  their  names,  they  might  all  pass  for  one 
and  the  same  Sesostris3. 

The  historical  and  other  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  III. 
far  exceed  those  of  any  preceding  or  subsequent  sovereign,  and 
correspond  with  the  long  reign  of  upwards  of  sixty  years  which  the 
lists  and  the  sculptures  agree  in  attributing  to  him.  The  earliest 
of  these  records  is  of  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign.  His  campaign  of 
this  year  is  partially  delineated  on  the  walls  of  the  propylaea  of 
Luxor,  but  much  more  fully  on  those  of  the  temple  of  Aboosimbel. 
So  numerous  are  the  pictures  that  they  alone  occupy  twenty-five 
plates  in  the  great  work  of  Rosellini4.  The  cost  and  labor  involved 
in  first  excavating  this  temple  in  the  rock,  and  then  covering  it 
with  painted  sculptures  of  nearly  the  size  of  life,  are  incalculable ; 
yet  they  could  never  be  seen,  except  when  explored  with  artificial 
light.  At  the  time  when  this  temple  was  excavated,  the  valley  of 
the  Nile  between  the  two  Cataracts  was  no  doubt  much  better 
peopled  than  it  has  ever  since  been.  But  on  this  site  there  is  no 
appearance  that  any  town  has  ever  stood ;  the  Nile  is  close  to  the 

1  Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod.  4,  272. 

3  See  note  on  fityaUos  -t^nrrig  (jniBa^n^  Kenrick's  Egypt  of  Herodotus, 
2,  106. 

*  See  p.  138  of  this  vol.  4  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  lxxix.  ciii. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


233 


front  and  the  desert  is  behind,  whence  the  sand  has  poured  down 
in  streams,  choked  up  the  entrance  to  the  temple,  and  buried  the 
colossal  figure  of  the  king.  We  can  only  conjecture  therefore  that 
some  unrecorded  circumstance  in  the  life  of  Rameses  led  him  to  fix 
on  this  spot  for  a  record  of  his  gratitude1. 

The  pronaos  of  the  temple,  into  which  the  traveller  first  enters 
when  he  has  worked  his  way  through  the  sand,  is  supported  by  a 
double  row  of  eight  pilasters,  on  the  front  of  which  stands,  like  a 
Caryatid,  the  figure  of  Rameses  with  the  attributes  of  Osiris, 
thirty  feet  in  height.  The  walls  on  the  left  or  south  side  are 
divided  into  several  compartments,  each  of  which  represents  some 
action  of  the  king;  the  right  is  occupied  with  a  single  subject, 
itself  comprehending  a  great  variety  of  actions2.  The  two  first  on 
the  left  side  exhibit  the  victories  of  the  king,  accompanied  by  his 
three  sons3,  one  of  whom  is  named  Rameses,  over  the  Asiatic 
nations  whose  names  are  already  known  to  us  from  the  sculptures 
offSetei  Menephthah,  African  victories  being  also  incidentally  men- 
tioned in  the  inscriptions.  The  artist  has  apparently  had  this 
monument  of  Menephthah's  reign  in  view,  and  imitated  its  compo- 
sition and  arrangement.  In  the  next  compartment  are  seen  two 
files  of  African  prisoners  led  by  the  king  to  be  presented  to  three 
divinities4.  These  according  to  the  usual  theology  should  be 
Amunre,  Phre,  and  Maut ;  but  Rosellini  has  observed  a  singular 
piece  of  flattery  in  the  composition  of  the  group5.  The  figure  which 
should  represent  Phre  has  the  disk  of  the  sun  placed  over  it,  but 
the  features  are  those  of  Rameses  III.  himself,  the  head-dress  is 
that  of  a  king,  and  the  legend  above  is,  "  Discourse  of  Amun-mai- 

1  Rosellini  supposes  that  here  he  may  have  met  his  queen,  hy  whom  the 
smaller  temple  was  dedicated  to  Athor,  on  his  return  from  his  expedition. 
(Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  167.) 

2  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  89-119. 

*  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  101.  4  Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  lxxxiv.  v.  vi. 

Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  117. 


234 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Ramses,  We  grant  thee  life  and  perfect  purity."  The  African 
prisoners  are  colored  alternately  brown  and  black,  but  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  this  is  meant  to  indicate  the  difference  of  color 
between  Nubians  and  negroes  ;  elsewhere  we  find  the  Egyptian  ar- 
tists using  a  contrast  of  color  for  the  sake  of  relief.  The  features  of 
both  the  brown  and  the  black  men  are  equally  negro,  and  their  cos- 
tume is  the  same.  In  their  rude  and  awkward  movements,  and  the 
ludicrous  expression  of  constraint  and  pain  in  their  countenances, 
the  painter  has  exactly  copied  the  workings  of  nature  as  they  may 
be  seen  at  this  day  in  the  same  people  under  similar  circumstances. 

The  wall  on  the  right-hand  side  represents,  without  divisions,  a 
series  of  actions  in  a  campaign  against  the  Sheto  which  may  be 
considered  as  the  first  military  undertaking  of  Rameses  III.,  as  it 
bears  date  the  ninth  of  Epiphi,  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign.  The 
whole  composition  contains  more  than  eight  hundred  figures,  and 
the  centre  is  occupied  by  the  camp  of  the  king,  the  various  events 
of  the  campaign  being  exhibited  around  the  four  sides1.  The  series 
begins  with  an  attack  made  by  him  on  a  fortified  city  standing  on 
a  river,  branches  of  which  flow  around  its  walls,  and  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  a  trench.  The  enemy,  who  wear  long-sleeved  tunics,  have 
generally  the  head  shaven,  with  the  exception  of  a  lock  which  falls 
over  the  back  of  the  neck,  and  wear  moustachios.  They  fight  from 
chariots,  but  of  much  ruder  construction  than  those  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  each  chariot  carries  three  persons,  a  spearman,  a  chario- 
teer and  a  shield-bearer.  Their  shields  are  of  different  forms,  some 
square,  and  apparently  made  of  basket-work,  others  of  wood  with 
incurved  sides.  The  enemy  are  driven  headlong  to  the  fortress, 
and  some  of  them  have  been  precipitated  with  their  horses  and 
chariots  into  the  river.  Mixed  with  the  chariots  appear  here  and 
there  men  mounted  on  horseback  ;  but  as  they  are  without  armor, 
and  the  horses  without  saddle  or  bridle,  they  seem  as  if  they  were 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  119,  tav.  Lxxxviil-ciiL 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


235 


making  their  escape  from  the  field  on  horses  which  in  the  conflict 
had  been  detached  from  their  harness,  or  else  are  acting  as  messen- 
gers1. The  battle-scene  is  followed  by  another,  in  which  the  king, 
seated  in  his  chariot,  and  surrounded  by  his  guards  and  officers, 
sees  the  amputated  hands  of  his  enemies  thrown  down  before  him, 
and  their  number  recorded  by  scribes.  Other  scenes  of  war  occupy 
the  borders  ;  they  generally  resemble  those  which  we  have  already 
described.  One  of  them,  however,  deserves  a  special  notice ;  two 
men  of  the  hostile  nation  are  undergoing  the  bastinade,  and  from 
the  inscription  above  them  it  appears  that  they  are  detected  spies. 

The  importance  which  the  Egyptians  attached  to  the  events 
of  this  campaign  is  evident  from  its  repetitions  at  Thebes. 
The  scene  represented  on  the  propylaea  of  the  great  court  of  Luxor 
is  the  same  as  that  which  we  have  just  described2.  We  find  again 
the  city  round  which  the  river  flows  assaulted  by  the  Egyptians, 
and  some  of  the  combatants  with  their  chariots  and  horses  preci- 
pitated into  it.  The  bastinading  of  the  spies  is  also  repeated,  and 
the  centre  is  occupied,  as  at  Aboosimbel,  by  a  representation  of  the 
camp.  All  doubt  of  their  identity  is  removed  by  the  date,  which 
is  the  fifth  of  Epiphi  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  king,  Rameses  III.,  the 
date  of  that  of  Aboosimbel  being  four  days  later.  The  Rameseion, 
on  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile3,  which  was  his  work,  repeats,  with 
some  variations,  the  same  subject4.  The  city  on  the  river  again 
appears,  but  it  has  a  double  fosse,  and  a  bridge  over  them  connect- 
ing it  with  the  main  land.  The  river  is  full  of  drowning  men  and 
horses  ;  a  chieftain  has  been  dragged  out  on  the  bank,  and  his  sol- 
diers are  endeavoring  to  restore  him  to  life  by  holding  him  with 
his  head  downwards.  These  men  have  evidently  made  a  sally 
from  the  city  over  the  drawbridge,  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  and 

1  The  camp  which  has  been  already  described  (vol.  i.  p.  194)  occupies 
the  centre ;  a  lion  bound  couches  in  the  middle. 
8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  222,  tav.  civ.-cvii. 

8  VoL  i.  p.  129.  4  Rosellini,  u.  8.  p.  232,  tav.  cix.  ex. 


236 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


rescuing  their  friends  whom  the  Egyptians  have  driven  into  the 
river.  In  another  part  of  the  Rarneseion  is  represented  the  capture 
of  a  second  fortress.  A  scaling-ladder  is  applied  to  the  walls,  two 
sons  of  Rameses  are  ascending  upon  it,  and  four  others  at  the  base 
are  leading  as  many  bodies  of  men,  who  are  sheltered  by  a  large 
wooden  coverlet  from  the  stones,  lances,  and  arrows  of  the  besieged. 
Four  other  royal  princes  appear  in  different  parts  of  the  field. 

Diodorus  Siculus1,  having  described,  on  the  authority  of  the 
Egyptian  priests  and  the  Greek  writers  who  had  visited  Thebes 
under  Ptolemy  Lagi,  the  fore-courts  of  the  monument  of  Osyman- 
dyas  and  the  colossal  statues  of  the  king,  his  wife  and  his  mother, 
proceeds : — "  Next  to  the  pylon,"  they  say,  "  is  a  peristyle  hall, 
more  wonderful  than  the  preceding,  in  which  are  all  sorts  of  carv- 
iugs,  representing  the  war  which  he  waged  with  the  revolted  Bac- 
trians.  Against  them  he  made  an  expedition  with  400,000 
infantry  and  20,000  cavalry,  the  whole  army  being  divided  into 
four  parts,  all  of  which  sons  of  the  king  commanded.  On  the  first 
wall  the  king  is  represented  besieging  a  fortress  surrounded  by  a 
river,  and  encountering  some  of  his  enemies,  accompanied  by  a  lion 
who  fights  fiercely  in  aid  of  him.  Some  of  those  who  expounded 
the  antiquities  said  that  the  king  had  really  tamed  a  lion,  which 
fought  for  him  and  put  his  enemies  to  flight ;  others,  that  being 
haughtily  vain  of  his  valor,  he  expressed  his  own  character  by  the 
figure  of  a  lion.  On  the  second  wall  captives  are  represented  with 
their  hands  cut  off,  and  otherwise  mutilated,  indicating  that  their 
minds  were  effeminate,  and  that  in  their  difficulties  they  had  made 
no  vio-orous  use  of  their  hands.  The  third  wall  had  carvings  of 
all  kinds,  and  brilliant  pictures  representing  a  sacrifice  by  the  king, 
and  a  triumph  on  his  return  from  the  war." 

There  are  circumstances  in  this  description  which  identify  the 
so-called  monument  of  Osymandyas3  with  the  Rarneseion,  and  the 
1  Hist.  1,  47. 

3  2s o  name  like  Osymandyas  appears  in  tlie  lists  of  Egyptian  kings;  but 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


237 


sculptures  of  which  Diodorus  speaks  with  those  which  Rosellini  has 
drawn.  Such  are  the  river  flowing  round  the  fortress,  and  the  four 
sons  of  the  king.  It  is  true  that  he  also  mentions  circumstances 
which  are  not  found  here,  as  the  fighting  lion,  and  the  mutilation 
of  the  captives.  But  only  a  part  of  the  original  sculptures  of  the 
Rameseion  remains ;  and  as  we  have  already  seen  that  those  of 
Aboosimbel  and  Luxor  are  free  copies  of  the  same  general  subject, 
we  may  restore  and  supply  the  one  from  the  other ;  and  in  one  or 
other  all  these  circumstances  are  found.  If  then  it  be  ascertained 
that  all  these  relate  to  the  same  event,  we  know  from  Diodorus 
what  that  event  was  ;  it  was  reputed  to  be,  according  to  the  Egyp- 
tian priests,  the  campaign  of  Rameses  against  the  revolted  Bactri- 
ans.  Amidst  all  the  uncertainty  which  attends  the  interpretation 
of  the  hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  so  much  seems  to  be  ascertained, 
both  from  the  words  themselves,  and  from  the  comparison  of  the 
nations  who  now  appear  in  the  field  with  those  who  are  seen  in  the 
battle-pieces  of  Setei  Menephthah,  that  this  was  a  second  conquest, 
and  that  consequently  there  had  been  a  rebellion.  There  is  no 
name  indeed  which  bears  any  resemblance  to  that  of  Bactrians ; 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  country  bore  the  same  name 
in  the  Ptolemaic  times  as  in  that  of  Rameses  III.  Yet  the  name 
is  remarkable,  as  it  recurs  in  Tacitus.  The  priest  who  acted  as 
guide  to  Germanicus,  related  from  the  monuments  of  Thebes  that 
Rameses  had  possessed  Libya,  Ethiopia,  Media,  Persia,  Bactriana, 
and  Scythia,  with  the  territories  which  the  Syrians,  Armenians, 
and  their  neighbors  the  Cappadocians  inhabit,  extending  his  domi- 
nion to  the  Bithynian  sea  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Lycian  on  the 
other1.  Now  we  know  from  the  monuments  that  the  claim  of 
dominion  over  Libya,  Ethiopia,  and  Syria,  was  well  founded ;  in 

ISimandu,  "  son  of  the  god  Mandu"  (see  vol.  i.  p.  331),  is  the  name  of  one  of 
the  sons  of  Rameses  III.,  and  may  have  been  a  title  of  his  father.  (See 
Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  i.  277.) 
1  Tac.  Ann.  2,  60. 


238 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  time  of  Herodotus  its  memorials  existed  in  Asia  Minor,  and 
may  yet  perhaps  be  found  there ;  the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  was  familiar  ground  to  the  military  sovereigns  of  the 
18th  and  19th  dynasties.  Confirmed  in  so  many  points,  why 
should  not  the  accounts  of  the  Egyptian  priests  be  believed,  when 
they  tell  us  that  Media,  Persia,  and  Bactriana  were  also  the  scene 
of  the  conquests  of  Rameses  ?  Such  were  the  first  conclusions  of 
Champollion  respecting  the  country  of  the  Sheto  and  the  other 
nations  who  are  represented  as  warring  with  Menephthah  and  his 
successors;  and  upon  the  whole  they  appear  to  be  the  most  pro- 
bable. The  expression  of  Herodotus,  that  he  wTent  through  "  the 
whole  continent,"  subduing  all  whom  he  met,  may  be  explained 
by  twro  other  passages,  in  which  he  uses  the  same  expression,  and 
from  which  it  is  evident  that  it  included  all  Asia,  from  the  shores 
of  the  JEo-ean  to  the  eastern  limits  of  Media  and  Persia1. 

o 

One  of  the  strong  evidences  of  the  wide  range  which  the  expe- 
ditions of  Rameses  and  other  Egyptian  sovereigns  took  in  Asia, 
was  the  resemblance  which  the  Colchians  bore  to  the  Egyptians. 
Herodotus  does  not  speak  from  hearsay  on  this  point ;  he  had 
been  among  the  Colchians,  and  had  made  inquiries  both  from  them 
and  the  Egyptians.  He  ackuowledges  that  the  resemblance  of 
their  dark  complexions  and  crisp  hair  was  not  decisive  ;  other 
nations  had  these  peculiarities  ;  but  he  lays  more  stress  upon  their 
linen  manufacture,  their  whole  mode  of  life,  their  language,  and 
their  practice  of  circumcision.  It  was  an  ancient  usage  only 
among  the  Colchians,  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  ;  for  the  Syrians 
in  Palestine  (by  whom,  though  ignorant  of  their  distinct  nation- 

1  1,  96      'Eovtiov  avrovofiOiv  tt&vtuv  d  v  a  t  t]  v  tt  tt  £  i  pe  v}  a>6e  av-ic  eg  rvpavviSas 

■nepiriXOov.  From  the  comparison  of  this  passage  with  the  beginning  of  c.  95, 
it  is  evident  that  "  all  on  the  continent"  means  all  who  were  subsequently 
included  in  the  dominion  of  Persia  (4,  91).  Darius  calls  himself  on  the 
stele,  which  he  set  up  near  the  Hebrus,  {Itpahw  rs  roi  it  dam  rfjs  f/ntipov 
fiaotXcvs* 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


239 


ality,  he  must  have  meant  the  Jews,)  and  the  Phoenicians  acknow- 
ledged to  have  learnt  it  from  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Cappadocians 
from  the  Colchians1.  Pindar  calls  the  Colchians  dark-com- 
plexioned, speaking  probably  according  to  the  received  opinion  of 
his  contemporaries.  The  later  geographers  and  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus9  may  have  only  repeated  Herodotus.  As  we  know  no- 
thing of  the  Colchian  language,  we  cannot  bring  to  the  test  the 
declaration  of  Herodotus  that  they  were  similar ;  nor  is  much 
stress  to  be  laid  upon  it,  as  his  knowledge  of  the  Egyptian  language 
was  very  limited ;  but  the  correspondence  of  their  mode  of  life  was 
a  matter  in  which  he  could  not  be  mistaken.  The  Colchians  were 
certainly  a  civilized  and  instructed  people3,  living  among  tribes 
remarkable  for  their  rudeness,  and  no  other  source  of  this  supe- 
riority appears  so  natural  as  a  settlement  of  the  soldiers  of  Sesos- 
tris4.  He  remarks  that  when  he  inquired  of  both  nations,  he 
found  that  the  Colchians  preserved  more  memory  of  the  Egyptians 
than  the  Egyptians  of  the  Colchians.  This  was  natural  under 
any  circumstances  ;  but  if  Pliny's  account  be  correct,  that  Sesostris 
was  defeated  by  Salauces,  son  of  ^Eetes  and  king  of  Colchis,  the 
silence  of  the  Egyptians  would  be  very  intelligible6.  The  wealth 
of  Colchis  in  gold,  of  which  Pliny  speaks,  and  which  gave  rise  to 
the  fable  of  the  fleece,  accounts  for  the  Egyptian  king's  including 
this  remote  country  in  the  range  of  his  expedition. 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  376.  Her.  2,  103. 

2  22,  8.    Colchos,  ^Egyptiorum  antiquam  sobolem. 

*  Bochart,  Geogr.  Sacr.  lib.  4,  c.  31. 

4  Ritter,  the  celebrated  geographer,  in  his  "  Vorhalle  Europaischer  Vol- 
kergeschichte,"  denies  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the  Colchians,  and  derives 
them  from  India.  One  of  his  proofs  will  excite  a  smile  at  the  present  day: 
"the  Egyptians,"  he  says,  "in  early  times,  according  to  the  unanimous  tes- 
timony of  antiquity,  kept  themselves  to  their  native  country  "  (p.  40). 

*  Plin.  N.  H.  33, 15.  Salauces,  JEetse  soboles  (Cod.  Bamb.  vulg.  ^Esubopes), 
victo  Sesostri,  ^Egypti  regi  tarn  superbo,  ut  prodatur  annis  quibusque  sorte 
reges  singulos  e  subjectis  jungere  ad  curruui  solitus,  atque  ita  triumphare. 


240 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Herodotus  does  not  mention  how  long  the  absence  of  Sesostris 
lasted.  Diodorus  makes  it  nine  years,  nor  is  this  improbable. 
Both  historians  relate  that  he  had  made  his  brother  viceroy  in  his 
absence,  and  that  on  his  return  his  life  was  exposed  to  danger  at 
Daphne  near  Pelusium  from  his  treachery.  He  invited  the  con- 
queror to  a  banquet  in  his  tent,  and  when  he  had  fallen  asleep 
under  the  influence  of  wine,  set  fire  to  a  quantity  of  combustibles 
which  he  had  piled  on  the  outside.  Sesostris  awaking  and  find- 
ing his  imminent  danger,  prayed  to  the  gods  for  the  deliverance  of 
himself  and  his  children  :  his  prayer  was  heard,  and  he  escaped 
through  the  flames.  To  show  his  gratitude,  he  offered  gifts  to  the 
other  gods,  but  especially  to  Hephaistos,  as  the  principal  cause  of 
his  escape.  As  related  by  Herodotus  the  story  is  still  more  por- 
tentous. Discovering  his  danger,  he  consults  with  his  wife,  who 
advises  him  to  take  two  of  their  six  children,  and  make  a  bridge 
of  them  across  the  flames.  He  did  so,  the  children  were  burnt, 
but  Sesostris  and  his  wife  escaped.  In  gratitude  for  their  preser- 
vation he  erected  statues  of  himself  and  his  wife  thirty  cubits 
high,  and  of  his  sons,  twenty  cubits  high,  before  the  temple 
of  Hephaistos  at  Memphis1.  This  tale  betrays  its  origin  in 
an  age  when  Egyptian  tradition  had  begun  to  be  corrupted 
by  a  desire  to  conform  to  Greek  ideas.  To  the  Greeks  the  Mem- 
phian  Ptah  was  the  god  of  fire  ;  and  what  cause  more  natural 
for  the  erection  of  the  family  group  in  costly  statues,  than  their 
deliverance  from  burning  ?    It  does  not  often  happen  that  Dio- 

1  Rameses  III.  appears  to  have  had  twenty-three  sons,  but  four  are  seen 
conspicuously  on  several  of  the  monuments  (Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  iii.  2,  240, 
2o5),  and  this  might  give  rise  to  the  popular  opinion  that  all  but  four  had 
perished.    (Birch,  Gall.  Brit.  Mus.  204.) 

Besides  Nofre- Atari,  who  dedicated  the  smaller  temple  at  Aboosimbel  to 
Athor,  he  had  another  wife,  Isinofre,  who  appears  along  with  him  in  the 
inscriptions  at  Silsilis,  accompanied  by  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  (Rosellini, 
Mon.  Stor.  1,  272.) 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


241 


dorus  is  more  moderate  and  rational  than  Herodotus  ;  but  it  is  so 
here.  Neither  author  gives  the  entire  story ;  Diodorus  does  not 
mention  the  burning  of  the  children,  nor  Herodotus  say  that  the 
statues  were  erected  in  memory  of  the  escape,  but  both  circum- 
stances are  necessary  to  complete  the  narrative. 

Herodotus  and  Diodorus  describe  Sesostris  on  his  return  from 
his  long  expedition  as  devoting  himself  to  public  works  and  to 
legislation.  The  captives  whom  he  brought  back  were  employed 
in  dragging  stones  to  the  temple  which  he  built  to  Hephaistos,  and 
others  which  according  to  Diodorus1  he  erected  in  the  chief  city 
of  every  nome  to  its  tutelary  deity,  placing  on  all  of  them  an 
inscription  purporting  that  they  had  been  raised  by  the  labor  of 
captives  and  not  of  Egyptians.  Some  of  these  captives,  who  had 
been  brought  from  Babylon,  unable  to  endure  the  severity  of  their 
labor,  rose  and  seized  upon  a  strong  post  near  the  Nile  and  not 
far  from  Memphis,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Babylon, 
whence  they  laid  waste  the  neighboring  country.  If  it  were  true 
that  they  defied  the  power  of  the  king  and  at  last  established 
themselves  here  in  security,  as  Diodorus  says,  this  would  give  us 
no  high  idea  of  the  power  of  the  Egyptian  monarchy.  Tradition, 
however,  varied  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  name ;  Ctesias 
derived  it  from  an  invasion  of  Egypt  by  Semiramis  ;  Josephus  with 
most  probability  refers  it  to  the  invasion  of  Cambyses2.  Sesostris 
raised  mounds  of  earth,  to  which  he  removed  the  inhabitants  of 
those  towns  which  were  in  danger  of  being  flooded  in  the  inun- 
dation of  the  Nile  ;  cut  canals  through  the  whole  of  Lower  Egypt3, 

1  1,  56.  3  Antiq.  Jud.  2,  15. 

8  Diodorus  represents  this  as  being  done  partly  to  render  Egypt  inacces- 
sible to  cavalry  and  chariots  ;  Herodotus  to  supply  fresh  water  to  parts 
remote  from  the  river.  The  country  having  been  rendered  unfit  for 
wheeled  carriages  by  the  cutting  of  canals,  it  was  a  natural  fiction  to  attri- 
bute to  him  the  introduction  of  mounted  cavalry.  Upajrov  <p*j\v  airdv 
ffyifirfrai  [tvo»v  a;  d(iwirur  em/iaiveiv.     (Schol.  ApolL  Rhod.  1,  2*72.) 

VOL.  II.  11 


242 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


and  built  a  wall,  1500  stadia  in  length,  from  Pelusium  to  Helio- 
polis,  to  defend  the  frontier  of  Egypt  from  the  invasion  of  the 
Syrians  and  Arabs.  According  to  Herodotus  he  distributed  all 
the  lands  of  Egypt,  assigning  to  each  man  his  "  rood  of  ground," 
and  laid  a  land-tax  upon  them.  Even  the  institution  of  the  law 
of  hereditary  occupations  was  attributed  to  Sesostris  (Sesonchosis) 
by  Dicoearchus  and  Aristotle1.  That  a  reign  so  long  and  vigorous 
would  witness  many  improvements  in  legislation,  many  works  of 
public  utility,  we  cannot  doubt  ;  we  know  that  Rameses  III. 
covered  Nubia2  and  Egypt  with  memorials  of  his  devotion  to  the 
gods  and  his  magnificence  in  building ;  but  when  the  raising  of 
the  sites  of  all  the  cities,  the  cutting  of  all  the  canals,  the  division 
of  the  whole  land  of  the  kingdom,  the  distribution  of  the  people 
into  castes,  are  attributed  to  him,  we  see  the  tendency  of  popular 
history  to  crowd  into  one  reign  the  progressive  improvements  of 
many.  Egypt  had  been  a  civilized  kingdom  long  before  Rameses 
III.,  and  those  undertakings  which  are  essential  to  its  prosperity  and 
order  had  probably  been  the  gradual  work  of  several  sovereigns. 

The  hieratic  manuscript  known  by  the  name  of  the  Papyrus  of 
Sallier,  is  said  to  contain  an  account  of  a  war  carried  on  by 
Rameses  III.3  with  the  Sheto  in  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign;  but 
the  import  of  this  document  is  hitherto  so  little  known,  that  we 
must  content  ourselves  with  indicating  the  fact,  that  four  years 
later  than  the  events  which  have  been  just  described,  he  was  still 
involved  in  hostilities  with  them. 

The  south  wall  of  the  palace  of  Karnak  contains  an  inscription 
dated  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  and  the 

1  Pol.  7,  10.     'O  Si  ^wpio-/iof  b  kclto  yevos  tov  koXitikov  nMBovs  i%  Aiyvirrov' 
«roXv  yap  vmpTtivti  toi$  yp6vois  tt]v  MiVoj  fia<ri\tiav  f)  YitaoxTTpios. 
a  They  are  found  at  Ibrim,  Derri,  Amada,  and  Wadi  Esseboua, 
3  "  Several  hieratic  papyri,  which  we  still  possess,  are  dated  from  the 
Rameseion,  and  I  have  found  in  Thebes  the  sepulchres  of  two  librarians, 
father  and  son,  under  Rameses  Meiamun."    (Lepsius,  Einleitung,  1,  39.) 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


243 


twenty-first  day  of  Tybi,  in  which  it  is  recorded  that  four  chiefs 
of  the  Sheto  came  to  the  tent  of  his  majesty  to  supplicate  for 
peace,  who  granted  it  to  them  on  condition  of  their  paying 
tribute  in  silver,  gems,  and  balsam  or  spicery1.  We  learn  little 
from  this  document  respecting  the  events  of  this  war  or  revolt.  A 
phrase  in  the  inscription  (1,  8  at  the  end)  seems  to  imply  that  a 
battle  had  been  fought  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  but  the  connexion 
is  not  sufficiently  clear  to  warrant  the  supposition  that  the  Sheto 
had  actually  invaded  Egypt.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  this  docu- 
ment three  of  the  gods  of  Egypt,  and  Sut  or  Sutch,  the  god  of  the 
Sheto,  who  resembles  the  figure  called  Typhon  or  Seth  in  the 
Egyptian  monuments,  are  represented  as  taking  a  share  in  the 
events  of  the  war  and  the  conclusion  of  the  peace,  on  behalf  of 
their  respective  worshippers2. 

This  is  the  latest  memorial  that  has  been  found  of  the  wars  of 
Rameses  III.  The  temple  of  Aboosimbel,  however,  contains  a 
large  stele  evidently  later  in  its  erection  than  the  edifice  itself, 
dated  the  13th  of  the  month  Tybi  and  the  35th  of  his  reign3. 
Its  purport  is  rather  religious  than  historical.  He  appears  upon  it, 
preparing  to  smite  three  foreigners  in  honor  of  the  god  Ptah- 
Sokari.  A  long  inscription  contains  the  discourse  of  this  divinity 
to  the  king,  in  which  he  declares  that  he  and  the  other  gods  have 
granted  to  him  that  his  edifices  should  be  stable  as  the  pillars  of 
heaven,  and  promise  that  he  shall  celebrate  many  panegyries,  that 
he  shall  conquer  his  enemies,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  world  shall 
be  obedient  to  him,  like  the  Sheto  represented  on  the  walls  of  this 
temple.  The  king  in  reply  boasts  of  having  enlarged  and  adorned 
the  temple  of  the  god  in  the  habitation  of  Ptah,  that  is  Memphis, 
his  peculiar  dwelling-place.    We  know  from  Herodotus  and  Dio- 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  268,  tav.  cxvi. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  280,  note.    This  may  possibly  throw  light 
on  the  obliteration  of  the  figure  of  Seth.    See  vol.  i.  p.  350. 
3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  163. 


244 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


dorus  what  he  did  for  the  enlargement  and  decoration  of  this 
temple ;  the  prostrate  colossal  statue  of  Mitrahenny  bears  the 
image  of  Ptah  and  the  contemplar  goddess  Pasht,  in  the  tablet  on 
the  breast  and  the  shield  on  the  belt1.  The  quarries  of  Silsilis 
contain  several  stelae  in  which  mention  is  made  of  panegyries  cele- 
brated by  Rameses  III.  in  his  30th,  34th,  37th,  40th  and  44th 
years.  The  last  appears  to  have  been  celebrated  on  a  larger  scale 
than  usual,  the  cities  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  being  specially 
mentioned  as  taking  part  in  them2. 

The  smaller  temple  at  Aboosimbel  was  dedicated  by  Nofreari3, 
queen  of  Rameses,  to  the  goddess  Athyr,  and  contains  chiefly  reli- 
gious inscriptions,  but  also  some  in  honor  of  Rameses  III.,  whose 
victories  over  the  nations  of  Africa,  over  the  north  and  the  south, 
are  commemorated,  but  without  any  precise  dates.  The  face  of 
the  rock  from  which  these  temples  were  excavated,  also  exhibits 
sculptures  of  various  kinds,  and  among  them  some  of  historical 
import.  One  records  an  act  of  homage  to  Rameses  III.,  in  the 
38th  year  of  his  reign,  on  the  part  of  an  Ethiopian  prince,  Sote- 
kauto4,  holding  the  office  of  basilicogrammat.  Neither  here,  nor  in 
the  other  numerous  examples  of  such  homage,  do  the  persons  render- 
ing it  exhibit  any  trace  of  Ethiopian  features  or  appear  in  Ethiopian 
costume.  They  invoke  the  gods  of  Egypt,  offer  prayers  for  the 
Pharaohs5,  and  are  in  every  respect  Egyptian.    Either  therefore 

1  Bonomi,  in  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit,  2nd  Series,  2,  300. 
3  Rosellini,  Mon.  del  Culto,  p.  230. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  173  ;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  cxi. 

4  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  187.  lie  is  called  "the  living  eyes  of  the  king"  and 
"ears  of  the  chamberlains  of  the  royal  house."    Compare  Jul.  Poll.  ii.  84. 

'Eh-a\oivro  Sc  rives  cj  ra  /cat  d^>0uX^oi  /JaaiAtuj  ot  rd  AfyduaV  hayytWov  rej 
Kail  rh  bp&jitva. 

6  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  p.  189.  Rameses  III.  added  two  lateral 
columns  to  the  inscriptions  on  the  obelisks  of  Luxor,  erected  by  Rameses 
II.,  but  they  contain  no  historical  information.  The  colossal  statues  of 
granite  which  (vol.  i.  p.  144)  are  attributed  to  Rameses  II.  should  belong  to 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


245 


Nubia  between  the  Cataracts  were  governed  in  this  age  by  Egyp- 
tian princes,  or,  as  seems  more  probable  from  the  multitude  of 
temples  of  that  religion,  its  population  was  Egyptian.  One  of  these 
inscriptions  on  the  rocks  of  Aboosimbel  is  important,  as  declaring 
that  Rameses  had  employed  the  captives  of  his  Asiatic  wars  in 
building  the  temples  of  the  gods1. 

Aristotle  and  Strabo  inform  us  that  Sesostris  undertook,  Pliny 
that  he  meditated2,  the  construction  of  a  canal  to  join  the  Nile  with 
the  Red  Sea.  Herodotus,  when  he  relates  the  similar  undertaking 
of  Neco3,  makes  no  mention  of  Sesostris,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  undertaking  has  been  attributed  to  him  from  the  celebrity  of 
his  name4. 

The  tablet  which  Rameses  III.  caused  to  be  erected  at  Abydos, 
containing  the  shields  of  his  predecessors,  has  been  already 
described.  Setei  Menephthah  appears  to  have  been  the  builder  of 
the  temple  or  palace,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  now  buried  in 
the  sand,  and  to  have  begun  the  temple  of  Osiris,  which  his  son 
Rameses  III.  completed. 

Eusebius  gives  sixty-eight  years  to  Rameses,  and  his  sixty-second 
is  found  on  a  tablet  in  the  British  Museum.  This  collection  also 
contains  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  Egyptian  sculpture,  in  his 
colossal  bust  of  red  granite,  the  remains  of  a  statue  once  placed  in 
the  Rameseion  of  western  Thebes  and  removed  thence  by  Belzoni5. 

Mention  has  been  already  made  of  the  tomb  in  the  valley  of 

Rameses  HL,  according  to  the  criterion  laid  down  in  p.  225  of  this 
volume. 

1  Diod.  Sic.  1,  56.  Tlpng  ras  epyaaias  rwi/  /ilv  A.iyvnTia)v  ov&iva  7n>pcAa/?f,  <5i' 
avrdv  de  tcjv  ai^jiaXtoTuiv  atTavra  KaTeviccvaore.  Aionep  eiri  iratn  tols  lepois  intypatpw 
ws  ovSds  iyxupios  tii  aira  ^d^fl/KC    The  niai  is  an  exaggeration. 

2  Meteor.  1,  14.    Strabo,  lib.  1,  p.  38.    Plin.  N.  PI.  6,  29. 
8  2,  158. 

4  Lepsius  (Einl.  1,  349)  thinks  that  Sesostris  carried  his  canal  only  to  the 
eastern  extremity  of  the  valley  of  Goshen. 

6  Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit  Mus.  p.  104.   Vol.  i.  p.  130. 


246 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Bab-el-Melook  in  which  the  shields  of  both  the  second  and  the 
third  Rameses  occur.  Rosellini,  who  entered  it  with  difficulty, 
found  it  nearly  filled  with  rubbish,  either  washed  down  by  torrents 
or  purposely  brought  in  when  it  was  abandoned1.  It  has  not  been 
explored  to  its  furthest  extremity,  but  there  is  no  appearance  that 
it  was  ever  elaborately  executed,  as  we  might  expect  in  the  tomb 
of  so  powerful  a  monarch,  and  one  who  reigned  so  long.  Was 
the  great  Sesostris  content  with  having  covered  Egypt  with  monu- 
ments of  his  magnificence  and  indifferent  to  the  splendor  of  his 
sepulchre,  or  are  we  to  believe  that  the  Rameseion  was  his  burial- 
place  as  well  as  his  palace  ?  Such  a  combination  would  be  very 
repugnant  to  Egyptian  usages,  and  yet  the  authors  whom  Diodo- 
rus2  followed  distinctly  asserted  that  the  tomb  of  the  sovereign  who 
built  the  Rameseion  lay  apart  from  those  of  the  rest  of  the  kings, 
and  was  approached  by  a  flight  of  steps  from  the  palace.  It  may 
therefore  remain  to  be  discovered. 

With  Rameses  III.  we  lose  the  guidance  of  the  Tablet  of  Abydos, 
but  the  procession  at  Medinet  Aboo  gives  us  a  royal  titular  shield,  to 
which  it  appears  from  other  monuments  that  the  name  of  Meneph- 
thah  II,  belongs3.  Herodotus  represents  Sesostris  as  being  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Pheron,  whose  name  historians  are  agreed  in  con- 
sidering as  a  misunderstood  Pharaoh.  Diodorus  gives  him  as  suc- 
cessor Sesoosis  II.,  confounding  him  probably  with  the  next  but  one 
in  order,  Setei  Menephthah  II.  The  Rameseion  contains  the  portraits 
and  names  and  offices  of  the  twenty-three  sons  of  Rameses  III. ; 
the  thirteenth,  Menephthah,  bears  the  addition  of  king,  which  has 
evidently  been  made  by  a  later  hand,  and  subsequently  to  his 
accession  to  the  throne.  Six  princesses,  elegantly  clothed  and  with 
a  sistrum  in  their  hands,  are  figured  in  the  same  place4.    No  pro- 

1  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  284.  2  1,  49. 

8  Instead  of  the  phonetic  characters  for  Ptah,  the  last  syllable  is  expressed 
"by  the  figure  of  the  god.    (Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  1,  204.    Lin.  iv.  12.) 
4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  L  275,  6,  1.    iii.  2,  297. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


247 


perly  historical  monuments  of  his  reign  exist;  he  appears  atSilsilis 
in  acts  of  adoration  to  various  divinities1,  among  the  rest  the  Nile, 
who  was  worshipped  wiih  especial  honor  at  this  place,  where  he 
seems  to  issue  again  as  from  a  second  source.  Nor  does  any  great 
building  appear  to  have  been  erected  by  this  king ;  when  his  name 
is  found,  it  is  on  trifling  additions  made  to  the  works  of  preceding 
monarchs.  The  fourth  year  is  the  highest  date  that  has  yet  been 
found  on  his  monuments.  His  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  is  167 
feet  in  length,  and  has  been  ornamented  with  great  care  in  the 
portions  near  the  entrance,  and  one  piece  of  sculpture  still  remains 
of  which  the  colors  are  as  brilliant  as  when  they  were  first  laid  on2. 
Menephthah,  crowned  with  a  splendid  head-dress,  and  clad  in  a 
long  transparent  robe  fringed  at  the  bottom,  stands  before  the 
hawk-headed  god  Phre,  who  promises  him  length  of  days  upon 
the  throne3.  This  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  custom  of  excavating 
the  tomb  during  the  lifetime  of  the  king.  The  name  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  Rameses,  who,  according  to  Eusebius,  reigns  sixty- 
eight  years,  according  to  Josephus  sixty-six,  and  who  must  there- 
fore be  Rameses-Sesostris,  is  in  Africanus,  Amenophath,  who  reigns 
nineteen  years.  Removing  the  A,  which  may  have  been  prefixed 
as  in  Armesses,  Menophath  approaches  closely  to  Menephthah. 
With  him  the  18th  dynasty  of  Manetho  concludes. 

To  the  reign  of  this  Menephthah  it  appears  probable  that  we 
are  to  refer  the  commencement  of  a  Sothiac  cycle.  It  has  been 
already  stated  that  the  1461  years  of  which  it  was  composed,  hav- 
ing run  out  in  139  a.  d.,  must  have  begun  in  1322  b.  c.4  If  there- 
fore we  could  ascertain  in  what  year  of  what  king  of  Egypt  it 
began,  we  should  have  a  fixed  point  for  our  chronological  reckon- 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  298. 

3  Wilkinson,  Mod  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  211.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  306. 
8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  exviii.    A  east  of  this  sculpture  was  taken 
by  Mr.  Hay,  and  is  in  the  British  Museum.    (Birch,  Gall.  pL  41.) 
*  VoL  i.  p.  280. 


248 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


ings.  Now  a  passage  in  the  writings  of  the  Alexandrian  astrono- 
mer and  mathematician  Theon,  published  by  Larcher  in  his  Notes 
to  Herodotus,  implies  that  this  cycle  had  one  of  its  beginnings,  if 
not  its  institution,  in  the  reign  of  a  certain  king  Menophres1.  As 
there  is  no  king  in  the  lists  whose  name  exactly  answers  to  this, 
Champollion-Figeac  conjectured  that  the  king  intended  was  the 
Ammenephthes  or  Amenophis  who  stands  third  in  the  list  of  the 
19th  dynasty,  and  the  year  of  the  commencement  of  the  cycle  the 
thirty-second  of  his  reign3.  Bunsen  has  given  reasons,  as  convinc- 
ing as  the  nature  of  the  evidence  allows,  for  considering  Meneph- 
thah  II.  as  the  king  intended3.  We  have  thus  a  fixed  point  from 
which  we  can  reckon  downward  to  the  reign  of  Sheshonk,  and 
thence  to  the  Dodecarchy  and  the  close  of  the  monarchy  of  the 
Pharaohs,  with  tolerable  certainty,  and  upwards  at  least  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  18th  dynasty.    The  astronomical  ceiling  at  the 

1  A.a\il3avoficv  ra  and  M.tvo<ppto}s  ecos  rrjs  X/)£eo>s  Avyovorov.  'O/xov  ra.  intavva- 
•ydfieva  trr\  otj  ininpocTiQovntv  ra  and  rij?  «p%?7s  AioK\r)rtavov  trrj  p''  yiiovrai 

oftov  ern  gxpe.  "The  sum  of  the  years  from"  (the sera  of)  "Menophres  to  the 
end  of"  (the  sera  of)  "Augustus  is  1605,  to  which  adding  the  100  years 
from  the  beginning  of  (the  sera  of)  Diocletian,  we  have  altogether  1705 
years."  The  sera  of  Diocletian  began  the  29th  of  August,  a.  d.  284.  (Ideler, 
Handb.  der  Chron.  1,  163;  Champollion-Figeac,  Premiere  Lettre  a  M.  le 
Due  de  Blacas,  p.  100.)  Deducting  the  283  years  of  the  Christian  sera 
which  preceded  it,  from  1605,  the  joint  duration  of  the  two  preceding  seras, 
we  have  1322  b.  c.  for  the  commencement  of  that  of  Menophres.  This  is 
the  year  in  which  we  know  from  Censorinus  (vol.  i.  p.  280,  281,  note)  that 
a  Sothiac  cycle  began. 

3  Syncellus  (p.  103,  193,  ed  Dind.)  says,  Tw  t  (5th)  trti  tov  Kt  (25th) 

3a<n\tx>aavTos  K.oyxapt(x>s  rrjs  Aiyvnrov,  inl  <r'  Svvaardas  tov  fcvvtxov  \tyofttvov 
Kvk\ov,  and  tov  npcorov  (iaoi'Xtuis  koX  oikigtov  MfffTjOut/x  rrjs  A.iyvnrov  n\ripovi>rai  irrj 

xp'  (700)  (3aai\zo>v  Kt.  Champollion-Figeac  joined  the  words  n^powrai  im  t// 
with  tov  K.WIK0V  ^tyofiivov  kvkXov,  instead  of  with  (3aai\ta>v  k'z,  and  hence  con- 
cluded, that  the  fifth  year  of  Concharis,  the  last  king  before  the  Hyksos, 
fell  in  the  700th  year  of  a  Sothiac  cycle.  See  Bunsen's  Egypt,  1,  221,  Eng. 
8  Bunsen,  iEgyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  123. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 


249 


Rameseion1,  if  erected  near  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Rameses- 
Sesostris,  would  exhibit  the  state  of  the  heavens  as  they  appeared 
in  the  beginning  of  that  of  his  successor.  The  reign  of  Sesostris 
was  one  of  the  times  assigned  for  the  appearance  of  the  Phoenix2. 

After  the  death  of  Menephthah  we  have  again  difficulties  from 
the  want  of  conformity  between  the  monuments  and  the  lists,  and 
discrepancies  among  the  monuments  themselves.  In  the  proces- 
sion of  Medinet  Aboo,  the  next  shield  to  that  of  Menephthah  is 
Setei-Menephthah  II.,  i.  e.  Sethos,  whom  the  lists  make  the  first 
of  the  1 9th  dynasty.  But  we  find  on  monuments  the  shields  of 
two  other  personages  with  titles  of  royalty,  whose  names  read 
Mai-n-Phre  Siphthah3  and  Amun-meses.  Siphthah  appears  at 
Silsilis  making  an  offering  to  Amunre,  accompanied  by  an  officer 
of  his  court,  who  puts  up  a  prayer  for  the  king ;  and  in  another 
sculpture  Siphthah  supplicates  Amunre  that  his  son,  Numei,  may 
sit  on  the  throne  after  him,  a  prayer  nowhere  else  found  on  Egyp- 
tian monuments,  and  from  which  it  has  been  argued  that  he  felt 
doubtful  of  the  stability  of  his  own  power4.  At  Qoorneh,  he  is 
represented  on  a  stele  inserted  into  the  wall,  receiving  from  the 
same  god  the  scimitar,  the  emblem  of  military  dominion,  Setei- 
Menephthah  L,  Rameses  III.,  and  Aahmes  the  queen  of  Amenoph 
I,,  standing  by6.  The  presence  of  these  persons  seems  to  indicate 
seme  genealogical  connexion  with  the  18th  dynasty  on  the  part  of 
Siphthah,  although  we  are  unable  to  say  what  it  may  have  been. 
His  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook6  is  of  great  length,  and  ornamented 
with  a  variety  of  sculpture.  His  wife  Taoser,  Taosiri,  or  Taseser, 
appears  frequently  making  offerings  to  the  gods,  sometimes  alone, 
sometimes  in  company  with  her  husband.    As  the  epithet  Osirian 

1  Yol.  i.  p.  281.  The  expression  "  Rameses  II.  or  III."  indicates  the  doubt 
whether  these  sovereigns  were  the  same  or  different. 

8  Tacit  Ann.  6,  28.  3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  324. 

4  Rosellini,  u.  s.  829.  6  Rosellini,  u.  s.  330. 

6  Ko.  14  on  Sir  G.  Wilkinson's  Plan.    Rosellini,  u  s.  331. 

11* 


250 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


(fj.axap(V7]£)  is  subjoined  to  her  name,  it  is  evident  that  she  was 
deceased  when  these  sculptures  were  executed.  There  is  no  date 
on  any  of  the  monuments  of  Siphthah,  but  everything  tends  to 
show  that  he  was  not  admitted  as  a  legitimate  monarch  of  Egypt, 
though  he  assumed  the  title,  and  had  for  a  time  possession  of 
Upper  Egypt,  so  as  to  prepare  himself  a  sepulchre  at  Thebes1. 
Of  Amun-meses  we  know  still  less  than  of  Siphthah,  but  he  seems 
also  to  have  been  an  intrusive  king,  and  the  circumstance  that  a 
change  of  dynasty  took  place  about  this  time  may  account  for 
their  appearance  in  monuments  and  their  exclusion  from  the  lists. 

Assuming  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  III.,  or  the  commence- 
ment of  that  of  Menephthah  II.,  to  fall  in  the  year  b.c.  1322,  and 
that  Rameses  III.  reigned  66  years,  we  are  brought  to  1388  b.c. 
for  the  date  of  his  accession.  There  is  no  certainty  in  the  num- 
bers assigned  by  the  lists  to  his  predecessors  ;  but  we  know  from 
the  monuments  that  Amenophis  III.  reigned  at  least  36  years, 
Thothmes  III.  at  least  35,  and  Amosis  22  ;  while  Rameses  I. 
reigned  probably  only  one  or  two  years.  If  we  allot  to  the  twelve 
predecessors  of  Rameses  III.  twenty  years  each,  we  shall  be  brought 
to  1628  b.c.  as  an  approximate  date  for  the  establishment  of  the  New 
Monarchy.  If,  however,  the  kings  whom  we  have  distinguished 
as  Rameses  II.  and  III.  were  one  and  the  same,  only  eleven  reigns 
intervened  between  Rameses  III.  and  Amosis. 

Nineteenth  Dynasty.    Seven  Diospolitan  kings. 
(Eus.  Five.) 

Years. 


1.  Sethos,  reigned   51  Eus.  55. 

2.  Rapsaces  (Rampses,  Eus.)   61  Eus.  66. 

3.  Ammenephthes   20  Eus.  40. 

4.  Rameses   60  Omitted  Eus. 

5.  Ammenemnes   6  Eus.  26. 


1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  hi.  2,  p.  319. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


251 


Years. 

6.  Thuoius,  called  in  Homer  Polybus,  the  husband  of 

Alcandra1,  in  whose  time  Troy  was  taken     .    .  7 

204 

"  In  this  same  second  volume  of  Manetho  are  96 
kings,  2121  years." 

It  could  not  escape  the  observation  of  critics,  that  the  com- 
mencement of  this  dynasty  bore  a  very  suspicious  resemblance  to 
the  termination  of  the  last2.  We  have  Rampses  reigning  66  years, 
followed  by  Ammenephthes,  who  reigns  40  in  the  19th,  and  Rarae- 
ses  reigning  68,  followed  by  an  Amenophis  reigning  40,  (Euseb.) 
in  the  18th.  The  names  Ramesses,  Armesses,  Armais,  Armaios, 
Ermaios,  if  we  strike  out  the  vowels,  which  were  not  originally 
expressed,  reduce  themselves  to  the  same  three  letters,  R,  M,  S,  and 
therefore  probably  denote  the  same  name,  if  not  the  same  person ; 
nor  are  Rampses  and  Rapsaces  so  remote  from  Rameses  as  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  their  also  being  the  same.  Amenophis, 
Amenophath,  and  Ammenephthes  so  nearly  resemble  each  other,  as 
to  excite  a  similar  suspicion,  especially  as  the  Amenophath  of  the  1 8th 
dynasty  reigns  19  years,  Amenophis  of  the  19th,  19  years  and  6 
months8,  and  Ammenephthes,  20.  Again,  the  Sethos-Rameses  of 
Manetho,  quoted  by  Josephus,  is  so  exactly  a  counterpart  of  Sesos- 
tris-Rameses,  that  we  cannot  hesitate  to  pronounce  their  histories  to 
be  the  same  in  origin4.    "  Sethos,  who  is  also  Rameses,"  says  he, 

1  In  the  Armenian  Eusebius  Thuoris  is  said  to  be  "  vir  strenuus  ac  fortis- 
simus,"  as  if  the  translator  had  read  aXxavSpos  drip,  which  is  the  reading  of 
two  MSS.  of  Syncellus,  p.  169  D.  320  ed.  Dind. 

3  "Hi  ipsi  reges,  ultimi  Dynastiae  18  et  primi  Dyn.  19,  valde  mihi  sunt 
euspecti  tanquam  iidem,  bis  positi  et  male  in  diversos  distincti,  quum  utique 
eadem  sint  nomina  regum,  idem  ordo,  idem  denique  spatium  regni." 
(Perizon.  iEgypt.  Orig.  Investig.  c.  xii.  p.  194.) 

3  The  authors  of  the  lists  have  suppressed  the  odd  months  everywhere,  as 
we  find  by  comparing  them  with  the  quotation  from  Manetho  in  Josephus. 

4  Joseph,  c.  Apion.  1,  15. 


252 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


"  had  a  large  force  of  ships  and  cavalry.  He  established  his  brother 
Armais  as  administrator  of  Egypt,  and  invested  him  with  all  other 
royal  authority,  only  enjoining  upon  him  not  to  wear  the  diadem, 
nor  to  injure  the  queen,  the  mother  of  his  children,  and  to  abstain 
from  the  royal  harem.  He  himself  having  made  an  expedition  to 
Cyprus  and  Phcenice,  and  again  to  the  Assyrians  and  the  Medes, 
brought  them  all  under  subjection,  some  by  force  of  arms,  others 
without  fighting,  through  terror  of  his  great  power ;  and  being 
rendered  proud  by  his  success,  he  went  on  yet  more  boldly,  sub- 
duing cities  and  lands  that  lay  towards  the  East.  After  the  lapse 
of  a  considerable  time,  Armais,  who  had  been  left  behind  in  Egypt, 
began  to  do  boldly  just  the  reverse  of  what  his  brother  had  exhort- 
ed him  to  do.  He  took  the  queen-mother  to  himself  by  force, 
and  did  not  abstain  from  the  harem1 ;  and  at  the  persuasion  of 
his  friends  he  began  to  wear  the  diadem,  and  set  himself  up  against 
his  brother.  Sethos  was  informed  of  these  things  by  the  chief 
priest,  and  immediately  returned  to  Pelusium  and  took  possession 
of  his  kingdom.  And  the  country  was  called  Aiguptos  from  his 
name ;  for  he  says  that  Sethosis  was  called  Aiguptos,  and  Armais, 
his  brother,  Danaus."  Here  we  have  evidently  the  same  narrative 
as  in  Diodorus  and  Herodotus  respecting  Sesostris  ;  the  great  force 
of  ships  and  cavalry,  the  conquest  of  Hither  Asia,  the  invasion  and 
subjugation  of  countries  lying  still  further  East  (the  Bactrians  of 
Diodorus),  the  distinction  between  the  nations  who  timidly  sub- 
mitted and  those  who  resisted  by  force  of  arms,  the  usurpation  of 
power  by  his  brother,  and  the  resumption  of  it  by  Sesostris  at  Pe- 
lusium. The  recital  of  Manetho,  it  is  important  to  observe,  since 
his  authority  has  been  often  so  lightly  treated,  is  simple  and  histori- 
cal ;  it  is  in  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  that  we  have  it  embellished 
and  exaggerated  from  popular  tradition. 

The  monuments  strengthen  the  suspicion  which  the  lists  excite. 


1  Comp.  2  Sam.  xvi.  20. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


253 


We  have  seen  that  the  62nd  year  of  Rameses  III.  has  been  found  ; 
but  there  is  no  trace  of  any  other  king  of  these  dynasties  reigning 
so  long.  We  are  therefore  led  to  conclude  that  the  Rameses  of 
the  19th  dynasty,  who  reigns  sixty  years,  and  the  Rampses,  who 
reigns  66,  are  one  and  the  same  historical  personage,  Rameses  III. 
of  the  18th.  The  identity  of  Amenophis  and  Ammenephthes  can- 
not be  proved  by  the  same  argument,  because  the  monuments, 
instead  of  40,  which  the  lists  exhibit,  have  hitherto  furnished  us 
only  with  4  years.  But  only  one  king  has  been  found  whose 
name  can  with  any  probability  be  read  into  Amenophath.  The 
Ammenemes,  who  now  stands  fifth  in  the  19th  dynasty,  is,  accord- 
ing to  Lepsius  and  Bunsen,  the  Amenmeses  of  the  monuments,  a 
contemporary  and  rival  of  Menophthes,  the  last  of  the  18th. 

Thus  when  critically  examined,  the  whole  19th  dynasty  appears 
to  collapse,  and  resolve  itself  into  a  repetition  of  the  18th,  with 
the  exceptions  of  Sethos  the  first,  and  Thuoris  the  last  name. 
The  Sethos  of  the  extracts  from  Manetho's  history  in  Josephus 
is  only  a  synonym  of  Rameses-Sesostris ;  the  Sethos  of  the  lists 
and  the  monuments  is  Setei  Menephthah  II.  (p.  249).  He  is 
called  Osirei-Menephthah  by  Rosellini1  and  Wilkinson,  as  the 
figure  of  Osiris  occurs  instead  of  Set  in  some  variations  of  the 
shield,  namely  in  the  tomb,  and  among  the  ruins  of  Karnak,  as 
well  as  on  some  of  the  sphinxes  of  the  dromos,  which  were  origi- 
nally placed  there  by  Horus2.  A  sarcophagus  with  his  shield, 
rudely  carved,  is  found  in  his  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook3,  and 
these  are  all  the  memorials  of  his  reign,  which  can  hardly  have 
extended  to  fifty-five  years,  according  to  the  present  reading  of  the 
monuments.  The  second  is  the  highest  that  has  been  found.  Ac- 
cording to  all  appearance,  it  was  both  a  short  and  an  inactive  one. 

In  the  monuments  nothing  has  come  to  light  by  which  the 
name  Thuoris  can  be  explained.    Polybus  is  not  spoken  of  in 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  311,  313. 

■  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  809.  3  Rosellini,  u.  s.  p.  814. 


254 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Homer1  as  a  king  of  Thebes,  but  as  a  rich,  man  by  whom  splendid 
gifts  were  bestowed  on  Menelaus,  while  his  wife  Alcandra  (not 
very  consistently  with  the  Herodotean  story  of  Proteus)  gave 
appropriate  similar  presents  to  Helena.  That  we  should  not  find 
an  Egyptian  king  to  answer  to  every  name  which  the  Greeks  inter- 
wove in  their  mythology  is  not  surprising ;  yet  as  fiction  is  not 
wholly  arbitrary,  we  might  have  expected  some  apparent  reason 
for  the  selection  of  this  name.  Bunsen  would  read  for  Thuoris, 
Phuoris.  Were  this  admitted,  a  probable  derivation  would  be 
from  Ptiouro,  which  is  Egyptian  for  '  king ' 2.  Phuoris  would 
then  be  a  name,  like  Pheron,  inserted  in  the  room  of  one  that  had 
been  lost  or  was  unknown.  It  is  in  this  way  that  we  find  Pharaoh 
used  in  the  earlier  Jewish  books,  while  in  the  latter  and  contempo- 
rary history,  Shishak,  Hophra,  Necho  are  mentioned  by  name. 
No  such  sovereign  is  found  in  the  procession  of  Medinet  Aboo,  nor 
can  we  trace  any  resemblance  in  the  history  of  Pheron  to  that  of 
Thuoris.  Pheron,  the  son  of  Sesostris,  loses  his  sight,  either  by 
hereditary  disease,  or  as  a  punishment  for  impiously  darting  his 
javelin  into  the  Nile  when  its  inundation  was  exceeding  bounds, 
and  recovered  it  by  a  remedy  prescribed  by  the  oracle.  In  gratitude 
to  the  god  and  at  the  command  of  the  oracle,  he  erected  two  lofty 
obelisks  to  the  Sun  at  Heliopolis3.  One  obelisk  remains  there,  but 
no  doubt  had  once  its  companion  ;  it  bears  the  name  of  Sesor- 
tasen  I.  Pliny  appears  to  refer  to  it  as  set  up  by  a  king  Mesphres. 
Others  at  Heliopolis  he  attributes  to  Sothis,  in  whose  name  we 
have  perhaps  the  Sesoosis  II.  of  Diodorus.  Elsewhere  Pliny4  gives 
the  name  of  Nuncoreus  to  the  son  of  Sesoosis,  and  says  that  the 
obelisk  which  he  erected  on  the  recovery  of  his  sight  was  in  the 
Circus  of  the  Vatican.     There  is,  however,  another  name,  not 

1  Od.  3\  126. 

'  Ouro  is  the  Coptic  for  'king,'  whence  the  royal  serpent,  0a<ri}foKos}  is 
called  Urceus.    (Horapoll.  1,1.) 

8  Diod.  1,  59.    Her.  2,  111.  «  N.  H.  36,  15. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


255 


indeed  in  the  lists,  but  in  the  monuments,  for  which  a  place  must 
be  found.  The  tomb  of  Siphthah  already  mentioned  in  the  Bab- 
el-Melook  originally  exhibited  on  its  walls  his  shield  and  that  of 
his  wife  ;  but  they  have  been  covered  with  plaster  and  other  inscrip- 
tions substituted  for  them.  The  name  of  the  king  who  had 
thus  usurped  the  sepulchre  of  another  is  not  clearly  made  out1, 
owing  to  the  number  of  characters  not  phonetic  with  which  the 
shield  is  filled  ;  but  it  seems  to  be  Merir  or  Merira.  His  name  is 
also  on  the  granite  sarcophagus  which  remains,  though  broken. 
In  the  procession  of  Medinet  Aboo,  his  shield  follows  that  of 
Setei-Menephthah  II.  We  cannot  therefore  question  his  royal 
dignity.  Bunsen,  on  the  authority  of  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  makes 
him  the  father  of  Rameses  III.  (IV.),  and  progenitor  of  the  long 
line  of  princes  of  that  name  who  fill  up  the  20th  dynasty.  The 
same  author  has  also  remodeled  the  two  preceding  dynasties.  He 
makes  the  18th  to  end  with  Horus,  and  the  19th  to  consist  of 
Ramessu,  Setei  L,  Rameses  II.,  Menephthah,  Setei  II.  Merira, 
whom  he  takes  to  be  the  same  as  Phuoris,  he  places  at  the  head 
of  the  20th  dynasty. 

The  period  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties  exhibits  Egypt  in  a 
new  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Under  the  Old  Monarchy 
we  cannot  trace  its  dominion  beyond  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  the 
northern  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  Libyan  tribes  immediately 
contiguous  to  the  Delta,  and  in  the  12th  dynasty  Lower  Nubia. 
With  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherds,  however,  begins  a  series  of 
foreign  wars,  which  led  the  armies  of  Egypt  to  the  verge  of  the 
then  known  world. 

Nations  seem  impelled  by  their  geographical  position  and  their 
relation  to  neighboring  countries  to  seek  to  expand  themselves  in 
certain  directions.    The  first  necessity  for  the  Egyptians  was  to 

1  Rosellini  calls  him  Uerri,  or  Remerri  (Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  317,  tav.  xiv.  116), 
where  the  various  shields  are  given.  One  of  them,  116*,  has  the  figure 
which  in  the  shield  of  Menephthah  is  pronounced  Set. 


256 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


secure  the  valley  of  the  Nile  beyond  the  Cataracts  of  Syene. 
From  this  quarter  their  independence  was  always  threatened.  Nubia 
was  inhabited  by  a  people  nearly  allied  to  the  Egyptians  in  blood, 
and  not  inferior  in  valor  or  perhaps  in  civilization  ;  the  banks  of 
the  Nile  offered  them  an  easy  road  to  descend  on  Egypt,  which 
could,  therefore,  have  no  peace  or  safety  unless  they  were  kept  in 
subjection.  Possibly  this  may  have  been  facilitated  by  matrimo- 
nial alliances  formed  towards  the  close  of  the  Hyksos  period,  or  by 
the  first  sovereigns  of  the  18th  dynasty1.  However  this  may  be,  we 
find  that  Thothmes  I.  had  possession  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  as 
far  south  as  the  island  of  Argo  ;  and  the  Egyptians  remained  mas- 
ters of  this  country,  as  completely  as  of  Egypt  itself,  during  the 
18th,  19th  and  20th  dynasties. 

There  was  no  such  motive  for  attempting  conquests  towards  the 
West.  The  sandy  desert  which  borders  the  Nile  on  that  side 
offered  no  temptation  to  ambition,  and  was  too  thinly  peopled  to 
be  formidable.  The  Oases  were  valuable  as  resting-places  for  com- 
merce, but  for  this  purpose  military  possession  of  them  was  not 
necessary.  The  sea-coast  westward  from  the  Canopic  mouth  is  not 
desert,  but  is  of  no  extraordinary  fertility  till  you  reach  the  district 
of  Cyrene.  The  Adyrmachida3,  the  immediate  neighbors  of  the 
Egyptians  in  the  time  of  Cambyses,  had  in  great  measure  adopted 
their  customs,  and  therefore  probably  lived  under  their  laws,  but 
still  retained  many  barbarous  usages2.  The  Giligammse,  who 
extended  thence  to  the  territories  of  Cyrene,  closely  resembled 
them.  No  mention  of  the  characteristic  production  of  this  region, 
the  Silpkium,  has  hitherto  been  found  on  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments, nor  does  any  inscribed  memorial  of  Egyptian  dominion 
remain  in  it.  In  the  name  Nahsi,  applied  to  the  black  nations  in  the 
hieroglyphical  inscriptions,  a  resemblance  has  been  conjectured  to 
the  Nasamones,  who  dwelt  on  the  coast  between  Cyrene  and  the 


1  See  before,  p.  175  of  this  vol. 


3  Herod.  4,  168. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY". 


257 


Syrtis,  feeding  their  flocks  there,  and  in  the  season  of  dates  gather- 
ing a  harvest  of  them  in  the  Oasis  of  Augila :  but  the  Nasamones 
can  scarcely  have  been  more  black  than  the  Egyptians,  living  as 
they  did  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  no  reliance  can 
be  placed  on  such  verbal  resemblances.  Dominion  over  Libya  is 
claimed  for  the  kings  of  Egypt  in  various  inscriptions  of  the  18th 
dynasty,  but  nothing  indicates  its  extent,  nor  is  any  nation  of  West- 
ern Africa  clearly  characterized  in  the  sculptures1.  Till  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Phoenician  colonies,  which  falls  at  a  later  period,  this 
region  appears  to  have  contained  no  civilized  or  powerful  nation. 

Towards  Palestine,  Syria,  Arabia,  and  Mesopotamia,  Egypt  stood 
in  a  very  different  relation.  She  had  to  fear  at  once  the  power  of 
the  nomadic  tribes,  which  still  continue  to  roam  over  the  desert 
regions  included  in  these  limits,  and  the  civilized  communities 
which  had  been  established  in  other  parts  of  them.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  18th  dynasty  she  was  only  just  recovering  her- 
self from  the  invasion  of  one  of  the  former  class ;  the  Hyksos  had 
been  driven  out,  but  from  Palestine  they  still  threatened  the  fron- 
tier. The  desert  which  divides  the  two  countries  was  but  a  slight 
protection  to  Egypt ;  it  has  been  passed  by  many  invading  armies, 
and  would  offer  little  obstacle  to  Palestinian  or  Arabian  tribes. 
Besides  these,  Palestine  contained  many  warlike  nations,  "  dwelling 
in  cities  great  and  fenced  up  unto  heaven,"  "children  of  Anak," 
whose  size  and  strength  disheartened  the  Israelites  and  made  them 
shrink  from  the  attempt  to  conquer  their  country2.  They  had  cha- 
riots and  horses,  and  in  the  equipments  and  arts  of  war  were  not 

1  There  is  a  country  hieroglyphically  designated  by  "  the  bows"  or  "  9 
bows,"  over  which  the  Egyptian  sovereigns  are  said  to  reign.  A  bow  in 
Coptic  is  Phit,  and  hence  is  supposed  to  stand  for  Phut,  which  (Gen.  x.  6)  is 
the  name  of  an  African  nation,  probably  the  Mauritanians.  (Joseph.  Ant 
1,  6,  2.)  But  this  character  of  the  nine  bows  occurs  where  it  cannot  well 
be  understood  exclusively  of  the  Libyans.    (See  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  16.) 

s  Deut.  ix.  1,  2.  Numb.  xiii.  31. 


258 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


inferior  to  the  Egyptians  themselves.  The  towns  on  the  coast  were 
probably  already  engaged  in  navigation  and  commerce :  Zidon  is 
mentioned  in  the  dying  words  of  Jacob.  Syria  and  Palestine  were 
not  only  formidable  neighbors  to  Egypt,  but  a  most  enviable  pos- 
session. From  the  variety  of  their  soil  and  surface,  they  furnish 
every  choice  production  of  the  vegetable  world ;  in  the  level  dis- 
tricts, grain,  in  the  more  hilly  regions,  the  olive,  the  vine,  the  pis- 
tachio, and  the  odoriferous  gums,  for  which  the  temple  service  of 
Egypt  made  a  large  demand ;  on  the  mountain  sides  inexhaustible 
forests  for  architecture,  ship-building,  and  the  manufacture  of  arti- 
cles of  luxury.  Hence  we  find  that  in  all  ages  the  acquisition  of 
Palestine  has  been  coveted  by  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt.  Thoth- 
mes  I.  must  have  held  it,  or  he  could  not  securely  have  carried  on 
wars  in  Mesopotamia.  Sesostris  has  left  the  record  of  his  conquest 
on  the  coast;  and  the  last  military  exploits  of  the  Rameses  appear 
to  have  had  Palestine  for  their  scene.  When  the  spirit  of  conquest 
revived  in  the  22nd  dynasty,  we  find  Sheshonk  invading  Palestine, 
and  besides  Jerusalem  and  "  the  fenced  cities  of  J udah,"  occupying 
other  places  in  that  country1.  There  is  again  an  interval  in  which 
Egypt  was  in  a  state  of  weakness  and  anarchy  ;  but  when  Psammi- 
tichus  had  united  its  forces,  the  schemes  of  Asiatic  conquest  were 
renewed.  The  danger  on  this  side  had  become  more  imminent. 
In  earlier  times  Egypt  appears  as  the  assailant  of  the  Mesopota- 
mian  nations ;  but  the  Assyrians  under  their  later  sovereigns  had 
become  a  conquering  people,  and  Sennacherib  had  advanced  to  the 
gates  of  Pelusium.  The  power  of  the  Assyrians  soon  after  passed 
into  the  hands  of  a  people  even  more  warlike,  the  Babylonians ; 
Neco,  who  had  advanced  to  the  Euphrates,  received  a  total  defeat 
at  Carchemish.  After  this,  the  Pharaohs  renounced  their  attempts 
to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  country  as  far  as  the  Euphra- 
tes ;  but  Apries  recovered  much  of  the  sea-coast  of  Palestine  and 


2  Chron.  xii.  4. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


259 


of  the  interior  of  Syria.  Under  the  Persian  power  all  these  coun- 
tries were  united  in  one  monarchy ;  but  no  sooner  had  an  inde- 
pendent power  been  established  in  Egypt  than  a  struggle  for  the 
possession  of  Syria  began  on  the  part  of  the  Ptolemies,  which  was 
met  by  attempts  on  that  of  the  Seleucidse  to  make  themselves  mas- 
ters of  Egypt.  The  same  struggle  has  been  renewed  since  the 
Mohammedan  Conquest.  The  powers  which  have  successively 
reigned  in  Egypt,  Fatemites,  Ayubites,  Mamlukes,  Turks,  have  all 
aimed  at  the  same  object,  but  down  to  the  recent  attempt  of 
Mohammed  Ali,  no  permanent  union  has  ever  been  effected  between 
the  two  countries. 

Even  the  Pharaohs  with  all  their  boastful  claims  to  victory  and 
dominion  never  could  incorporate  them  with  Egypt.  If  one  sove- 
reign appears  to  have  put  down  all  resistance,  we  find  that  his  suc- 
cessors have  soon  to  combat  the  same  nations.  Yet  this  would  be 
an  insufficient  ground  for  calling  in  question  the  reality  of  their 
expeditions  and  victories.  We  are  not  indeed  to  receive  the 
accounts  of  them  as  literally  true  ;  Egyptian  sculptures  and  hiero- 
glyphics were  not  more  veracious  than  modern  gazettes  and  bul- 
letins ;  Bel  and  Nebo  may  have  been  thanked  for  the  same  events 
as  Amun  and  Phre ;  we  know  that  Te  Deum  has  been  sung  for 
the  same  battle,  at  Vienna  and  Paris.  But  it  would  be  the  excess 
of  incredulity  to  suppose  that  the  walls  of  the  temples,  palaces,  and 
tombs  of  Egypt  could  be  inscribed  with  the  scenes  of  imaginary 
campaigns,  and  that  the  diversity  of  names,  physiognomy,  costume 
and  armor  which  appears  in  them  has  been  devised  for  the  purpose 
of  imposture.  The  evidence  of  the  Statistical  Tablet  is  still  more 
decisive.  Here  we  have  the  year,  month,  and  day  of  the  king's 
reign  specified  on  which  his  expedition  was  undertaken  ;  and  its 
fruits  in  spoil  or  tribute  registered  with  the  most  formal  minute- 
ness. If  such  evidence  can  be  rejected,  we  must  renounce  all  hope 
of  establishing  history  in  these  ancient  times.  Few  events  of  the 
middle  ages  are  certified  to  us  by  such  authority. 


260 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


It  may  seem  incredible  that  kings  of  Egypt  should  be  able  to 
carry  on  wars  so  far  from  home  as  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  still  more  the  confines  of  Bactria.  This  feeling,  however, 
arises  from  the  ignorance  in  which  we  have  remained  till  lately  of 
the  times  of  the  Thothmes  and  the  Rameses.  We  have  known 
nothing  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  Egypt,  its  population,  its 
military  discipline,  the  perfection  of  its  arts,  and  its  civil  organiza- 
tion. The  monuments  confirm  themselves,  for  they  show  that  all 
these  existed  in  the  15th  and  16th  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era ;  and  where  they  exist,  the  ambition  of  conquest  is  not  long 
absent.  The  power  of  a  single  aggressive  monarchy  was  then  not 
easily  resisted  ;  extensive  coalitions  and  alliances  were  impracticable. 
The  extraordinary  stability  and  regularity  of  the  Egyptian  govern- 
ment allowed  the  sovereigns  to  be  absent  from  their  dominions 
without  danger  ;  the  people  were  not  seduced  from  their  allegiance, 
even  in  the  nine  years'  expedition  of  Sesostris.  If  Cambyses  could 
reign  from  Media  to  the  confines  of  Ethiopia  and  to  the  JEgean 
sea,  there  seems  no  reason  why  the  sovereigns  of  the  18th  and 
19th  dynasties  of  Egypt  may  not  have  traversed  these  countries 
with  their  armies,  and  made  them  for  the  time  their  tributaries. 

To  this  period  later  writers  refer  the  arrival  of  the  first  Egyp- 
tian colonists  in  Greece.  Herodotus  fully  believed  in  the  fact," 
but  he  did  not  connect  it  with  any  particular  event  in  Egyp- 
tian history.  He  relates  the  introduction  of  the  worship  of  Egyp- 
tian deities  at  Dodona,  by  a  female  minister  stolen  from  the  temple 
of  Thebes  ;  the  flight  of  the  daughters  of  Danaus  from  the  sons 
of  ^Egvptus,  and  their  touching  at  Rhodes  in  the  way ;  he  attri- 
butes to  them  the  introduction  of  the  rites  of  Ceres  into  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, and  traces  the  genealogy  of  the  Dorian  kings  through 
Perseus  and  Danaus  to  Egypt.  Divination,  processions  and  solemn 
festivals,  according  to  him,  all  came  to  Greece  from  the  same  source1. 

1  2,  54,  58,  171,  182.  6,  53.  The  inhabitants  of  Chemmis  claimed  Danaus 
and  Lynceus  as  natives  of  their  city. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


261 


Neither  he  nor  the  Greek  writers  who  followed  him  appear  to  have 
doubted  the  fact  of  the  extensive  influence  of  Egypt  on  Greece, 
nor  its  having  been  produced  by  colonization.  The  circumstances 
of  the  arrival  and  establishment  of  Danaus  are  indeed  clearly 
mythic — the  fifty-oared  ship,  the  equal  number  and  marriage  of 
his  daughters  and  his  brother  ^Egyptus'  sons,  the  murder  of  all 
but  Lynceus  by  the  Danaides1.  But  removing  these,  there  remain 
the  belief  of  the  Greeks  that  the  ancient  royal  family  of  Argos 
was  of  Egyptian  descent — a  belief  which  cannot  have  sprung  up 
and  become  national,  without  a  specific  cause — and  the  conviction 
of  Herodotus,  who  knew  both  Greece  and  Egypt  well,  that  the 
Grecian  rites  had  been  derived  from  Egypt.  Some  circumstances2 
seem  to  indicate  that  Phoenicia  was  the  medium  through  which 
the  worship  of  Io  was  brought  to  Greece  ;  yet  the  interval  was 
probably  short,  as  the  Egyptian  name  was  preserved.  Josephus3 
says  that  the  Egyptians  became  known  to  the  Greeks  through  the 
means  of  the  Phoenicians,  who  visited  Greece  for  purposes  of  com- 
merce, and  these  visits  began  in  the  heroic  age. 

Speaking  of  the  introduction  of  the  Bacchic  rites  into  Greece, 
Herodotus  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  Melampus,  by  whom  they 
were  taught  to  the  Greeks,  had  himself  derived  his  knowledge  of 
them  through  the  Phoenicians,  namely  from  Cadmus  the  Tyrian, 
and  those  who  came  with  him  from  Phoenicia  into  Boeotia4. 

1  The  number  of  fifty  sons  and  daughters  arose  from  a  mythical  propriety. 
The  vessel  in  which  a  voyage  from  Egypt  to  Greece  was  performed  could 
not  be  inferior  to  a  pentecontor,  the  largest  then  known.  But  the  heroes  of 
mythology,  as  the  Argonauts,  were  their  own  rowers ;  hence  the  sons  of 
iEgyptus  were  fifty,  and  the  Danaides,  whom  each  coveted  for  a  bride,  of 
an  equal  number.  The  sons  of  JEgyptus  had  served  their  purpose  when 
one  of  them  had  furnished  a  sovereign  to  Argos ;  the  rest  were  disposed  of 
by  the  daggers  of  their  wives.    The  Danaides  remained. 

a  See  p.  52  of  this  volume. 

8  <$>oivikcs  tear'  ipKopiav  toTs  *EXXr?<rii'  ETretairXcovTS;  eidvs   tyvwffOjjo-ar,   <a\  iC 

Ktifuiv  Adytnut,    (Jos.  c.  Apion.  1,  12.)  4  Herod.  2,  49. 


262 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Indeed  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  Melampus,  the  sup- 
posed founder  of  these  Bacchic  rites  in  Greece,  and  progenitor  of 
a  caste  of  soothsayers,  is  only  another  name  for  Egyptian,  and 
that  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the  Bacchic  rites  is  the  fact  meant  to 
be  expressed,  in  calling  Melampus  their  author1.  The  Attic  worship 
of  Neith,  under  the  name  of  Athena,  has  evidently  come  from  the 
Phoenicians  of  Boeotia. 

In  the  age  of  Herodotus  historical  chronology  was  not  suffi- 
ciently cultivated  to  induce  an  identification  of  Danaus  with  an 
individual  king  or  prince  of  Egypt.  The  Greeks  had  already  con- 
nected the  war  of  Troy  and  the  wanderings  of  Menelaus  with 
Egyptian  history,  but  they  contented  themselves  with  turning  Pro- 
teus into  a  king  of  Egypt,  and  Thone  into  a  guardian  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Nile.  But  when  learned  chronologers  began  to 
synchronize  the  histories  of  different  countries,  it  was  natural  to 
seek  for  such  illustrious  personages  as  Danaus  and  ^Egyptus,  joint 
founders,  through  a  son  and  daughter,  of  the  Argive  royal  family, 
among  the  characters  of  history.  The  feud  of  Rameses  and  the 
brother  whom  he  made  his  viceroy,  repeated  in  the  story  of  Sethos 
and  Armais,  was  one  of  the  few  personal  anecdotes  which  the  Egyp- 
tian records  had  preserved,  and  was  therefore  fixed  upon  to  explain 
the  hostility  of  Danaus  and  ^Egyptus.  Sethosis,  says  Manetho, 
was  called  ^Egyptus,  and  Ermaios  (Armais)  his  brother  Danaus2. 
The  resemblance,  indeed,  ceased  with  this  circumstance  ;  but  this 
identification  served  to  make  the  Macedonian  conqueror  of  Egypt 
through  Hercules,  Perseus  and  Danaus,  a  descendant  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  ancient  Pharaohs.  No  regard  was  paid  to  the 
heroic  chronology  of  Greece  in  these  deductions  ;  for  Amenophis 

1  Apollod.  Bibl.  ii.  1,  4.  Aiyvirros — KaraaTpsxpa/jievos  rrjv  M  tX  a  prr  66  w  v 
X^Pav  <*<f  eavroi  wvofiaaev  AXyvirrov.  There  appears  no  sufficient  reason  for 
the  conjecture  of  Scaliger,  MiAa^/SwA™,  since  Eustathius  and  the  Scholiast 
on  the  Prometheus  evidently  read  as  we  now  do.    (See  Heyne  ad  loc.) 

"  Joseph,  c.  Ap.  1,  26. 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


263 


III.,  who  preceded  Rameses  the  brother  of  Armais-Danaus  by  five 
reigns,  was  made  to  be  Meranon,  a  contemporary  of  the  War  of 
Troy,  and  Thuoris,  the  successor  of  Rameses  by  two  reigns,  the 
Polybus  under  whom  Troy  was  taken. 

We  must  therefore  regard  these  identifications  as  arbitrary,  so 
far  as  they  relate  to  persons.  Yet  there  was  a  good  reason  for 
referring  the  commencement  of  Egyptian  influence  upon  Greece  to 
this  period  of  history — the  18th  and  19th  dynasties.  Such  expe- 
ditions as  Thothmes,  Amenophis  and  Sesostris  undertook,  could 
not  be  without  effect  upon  all  the  countries  around.  Their  occu- 
pation of  Phoenicia  and  Asia  Minor  may  have  caused  migrations 
from  these  countries  to  a  more  western  land,  the  traces  of  which 
remained  in  the  Greek  religion  and  manners,  though  the  circum- 
stances are  disguised  in  mythe.  Sesostris  is  said  by  Herodotus  to 
have  crossed  into  Thrace ;  Diodorus  represents  him  as  conquering 
the  Cyclades ;  he  was  the  first  Egyptian  king  who  built  ships  of 
war,  and  the  pentecontor  or  vessel  of  fifty  oars  first  appears  in 
Greek  mythology,  in  the  story  of  Danaus  and  ^Egyptus.  It  is 
from  this  time  also,  namely  the  fourteenth  century  before  Christ, 
that  something  like  consistency  begins  to  appear  in  Grecian 
history. 

Diodorus,  in  a  fragment  of  his  40th  Book,  refers  the  expulsion 
of  the  Jews  and  the  emigrations  of  Danaus  and  Cadmus  to  the 
same  age  and  the  same  cause.  The  Exodus,  or  Departure  of  the 
Children  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  falls  according  to  the  common 
chronology  about  the  year  1490  b.c.  ;  but  as  no  king  is  named,  in 
the  account  either  of  their  settlement  in  Egypt  or  of  their  departure, 
we  cannot  connect  the  scriptural  history  with  the  regnal  chrono- 
logy of  the  Pharaohs.  The  time  of  their  residence  is  distinctly 
fixed,  both  in  the  prophecy  of  the  fortunes  of  his  descendants  to 
Abraham  and  in  the  narrative  of  the  Exodus  itself.  In  the  former 
(Gen.  xv.  13)  God  says  to  Abraham,  "  Thy  seed  shall  be  a  stranger 
in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs,  and  shall  serve  them ;  and  they  shall 


264 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


afflict  tliem  four  hundred  years.  But  in  the  fourth  generation 
they  shall  come  hither  again."  In  Exodus  (xii.  40)  it  is  said, 
"  The  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  land  of  Egypt  was 
four  hundred  and  thirty  years  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years,  even  on  that  very  day,  all  the  hosts  of  Jehovah 
went  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt."  These  words  are  so  precise, 
that  no  other  sense  would  have  been  affixed  to  them  than  that  the 
sojourning  in  Egypt  lasted  430  years,  had  not  a  difficulty  arisen 
from  the  mention  of  the  fourth  generation  in  the  prophecy  to 
Abraham,  and  the  genealogical  notices  in  Exod.  vi.  16-19, 
Numb.  xxvi.  58,  where  Kohath  is  made  the  grandfather,  and 
Amram  the  father  of  Moses ;  Kohath  being  the  son  of  the  Patri- 
arch Levi  (Gen.  xlvi.  11),  and  having  gone  down  with  him  into 
Egypt.  The  difficulty  of  stretching  out  four  generations  to  400 
years  was  early  felt,  where  it  was  most  natural  that  a  chronological 
difficulty  connected  with  Egypt  should  be  felt,  at  Alexandria. 
Accordingly  in  the  Septuagint  Version,  made  by  learned  Jews  at 
that  seat  of  Graeco-Egyptian  science,  Exod.  xii.  40  reads  thus  : 
"  The  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  sojourned  in 
the  land  of  Egypt  and  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  was  430  years  ;" 
the  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  which  so  often  agrees  with  the  Septua- 
gint against  the  Hebrew1,  here  also  follows  the  Greek  Version. 
Josephus  is  inconsistent;  in  one  place  he  reckons  the  whole  period 
of  Egyptian  bondage  at  400  years2 ;  in  another3  he  gives  215  years 
to  the  sojourning  of  Abraham  and  the  patriarchs  in  Canaan,  and 
215  to  the  sojourning  in  Egypt.     This  reckoning  appears  to  have 

1  This  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  Samaritans  appear 
to  have  been  a  considerable  body  in  Egypt  (Flav.  Vop.  Saturninus,  c.  8), 
and  may  have  lived  there  more  harmoniously  with  the  Hellenistic  Jews 
than  with  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  who  hated  the  Hellenists  as  much  as  they 
did  the  Samaritans. 

2  Ant.  2,  9,  1.     TerpaKociojv  fitv  ercov  ^ovov  inl  ravrais  6irivwav  Ta\aino)piais* 

3  Ant.  2,  15,  2. 


THE   NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


265 


been  adopted  by  the  Jews,  who  chiefly  used  the  Septuagint,  in  the 
age  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and  is  the  foundation  of 
St.  Paul's  remark  (Gal.  iii.  17),  "that  the  promise  to  Abraham 
preceded  by  430  years  the  giving  of  the  Law."  That  the  reading 
of  the  Septuagint  is  an  arbitrary  and  uncritical  alteration  of  the 
text  is  now  generally  admitted ;  it  appears  to  remove  one  difficulty 
to  create  a  greater ;  since  the  increase  of  the  children  of  Israel 
from  seventy  persons  to  600,000  fighting-men  in  230  years  is 
incredible.  A  generation  is  not  to  be  understood  in  the  prophecy 
to  Abraham  in  the  strict  and  scientific  sense  ;  it  evidently  means 
the  average  period  of  the  life  of  man,  which  might  fairly  be  esti- 
mated at  a  century,  when  110,  120,  130,  and  137  years  are  assigned 
as  its  actual  duration.  There  is  then  no  sufficient  ground  for 
impeaching  the  purity  of  the  Hebrew  text,  nor  for  giving  to  it  any 
other  than  its  obvious  meaning,  that  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt 
400  years  in  Egypt1.  The  words  of  the  prophecy  to  Abraham  do 
not  necessarily  imply  that  their  oppression  should  last  so  long. 

If  then  the  Exodus  falls  in  the  15th  century  before  Christ,  and 
the  children  of  Israel  went  down  into  Egypt  400  years  before,  their 
settlement  must  have  taken  place  under  one  of  the  dynasties 
between  the  14th  and  the  18th.  The  friendly  reception  which 
they  met  with  in  Egypt,  and  the  facility  with  which  the  fertile 
land  of  Goshen,  lying  towards  Palestine  and  Arabia,  was  assigned 
to  them,  is  most  naturally  explained,  if  we  assume  that  the  Pha- 
raoh who  raised  Joseph  to  the  rank  of  vizir  was  one  of  the  Hyksos 
race.  The  Hyksos  were  Phoenician  shepherds,  therefore,  of  a 
Semitic  race  like  the  Israelites;  and  by  placing  them  on  the 
frontier  of  Asia,  they  secured  themselves  a  friendly  garrison  in  that 

1  There  still  remains  the  difficulty  that  Moses  is  made  the  great-grandson 
of  Levi  But  is  it  probable  that  genealogical  registers  would  be  preserved 
with  such  accuracy,  as  to  make  them  historical  documents,  in  that  inter- 
val when  the  children  of  Israel  had  ceased  to  be  a  family  and  had  not  yet 
become  a  nation  ? 

VOL.  II.  12 


266 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


vulnerable  part  of  their  dominions.  It  is  true  that  we  find  no 
marks  of  the  sovereignty  of  a  foreign  race  in  the  account  of  the 
settlement  of  the  Israelites.  Everything  corresponds  with  the 
usages,  ceremonials  and  condition  of  society,  as  we  know  them 
from  monuments  of  the  native  Egyptians.  The  native  gods  are  in 
high  honor ;  the  prime-minister  receives  for  a  wife  the  daughter 
of  the  chief-priest  of  Re  at  Heliopolis;  the  lands  of  the  priests 
alone  escape  forfeiture  to  the  crown  in  the  famine.  He  is  invested 
with  the  insignia  of  office  with  the  same  ceremonies  which  were 
practised  at  the  court  of  Setei  Menephthah1.  The  king  has  a 
splendid  retinue — a  chief  captain  of  the  guard,  a  chief  butler  and 
chief  baker,  magicians  and  wise  men.  There  is  the  same  marked 
contrast  between  Egyptian  usages  and  those  of  neighboring 
nations ;  they  will  not  eat  with  a  Hebrew  any  more  than  they 
would  touch  the  knife  of  a  Greek2 ;  when  Jacob  dies,  forty  days 
are  consumed  in  his  embalmment,  and  seventy  more  in  mourning 
for  him.  The  language  of  Egypt  was  unintelligible  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  as  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  disguised  fragments  which 
have  been  handed  down  to  us,  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  monu- 
ments. This  would  be  of  great  weight  were  it  certain  that  all  the 
details,  as  well  as  the  great  facts  of  the  narrative,  have  been 
derived  from  contemporary  authority.  It  might  also  be  said,  that 
if  the  Hyksos  had  been  already  established  some  centuries  in 
Egypt  when  Joseph  was  transported  thither,  they  would  have 
adopted  the  language  and  manners  of  the  conquered  people. 
Joseph  suggests  to  his  brethren  that  they  should  call  themselves 
shepherds,  in  order  that  the  land  of  Goshen  might  be  assigned  to 
them,  adding,  "  for  every  shepherd  is  an  abomination  to  the  Egyp- 
tians ;"  and  this  has  been  thought  to  refer  to  the  sufferings  inflicted 
on  Egypt  by  the  Hyksos  and  to  prove  that  they  had  recently  been 
expelled.    But  the  settlement  of  an  aged  man  with  his  children 


Wilkinson,  H.  and  C.  pi.  80. 


*  Her.  2,  41 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


26V 


and  grandchildren,  amounting  in  all  only  to  seventy  persons, 
could  hardly  excite  apprehension,  however  much  the  Egyptians 
had  suffered  from  an  invasion  of  a  nomad  people.  We  do  not 
know  indeed,  from  other  authorities,  that  shepherds,  like  swine- 
herds, were  an  abomination  to  the  Egyptians ;  but  they  were  of  a 
low  caste,  and  their  occupation  evidently  ranked  below  that  of 
the  cultivator  of  the  soil1. 

The  language  of  the  Book  of  Exodus,  "  a  new  king  arose  who 
knew  not  Joseph,"  points  to  a  change  of  dynasty,  and  the  com- 
mencement of  the  New  Monarchy,  rather  than  the  succession  of  a 
sovereign  of  the  same  family,  in  whom  such  ignorance  would  be 
incredible  ;  and  a  long  interval  must  have  occurred,  of  which  the 
historian  gives  us  some  general  measure  by  saying  that  "the 
children  of  Israel,  after  the  death  of  Joseph  and  all  that  genera- 
tion, multiplied  and  waxed  exceedingly  mighty  and  the  land  was 
filled  with  them."  Their  oppression  extended  through  several 
reigns,  for  Pharaoh  not  being  a  personal  name,  its  recurrence  is 
no  proof  that  one  sovereign  is  intended  throughout.  After  the 
expulsion  of  the  Hyksos,  the  Israelites,  who,  though  not  the  same, 
were  closely  connected  with  them,  naturally  became  an  object  of 
alarm,  and  the  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty  endeavored  first  to 
check  their  increase  and  then  to  break  their  spirit. 

In  endeavoring  to  connect  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites  with  the 
Egyptian  history,  we  must  lay  out  of  the  account  entirely  the  nar- 
rative of  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  by  Manetho.  It  is  only  by 
the  means  of  the  interpolations  of  Josephus2  that  it  has  appeared 
to  describe  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites.    The  authentic  chronicles 

1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  2,  16.  "  As  if  to  prove  how  much  they  despised 
every  order  of  pastors,  the  artists  both  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  delighted 
in  representing  them  as  dirty  and  unshaven  ;  and  at  Beni  Hassan  and  the 
tombs  near  the  pyramids  of  Geezah,  they  are  caricatured  as  a  deformed 
and  unseemly  race." 

a  See  p.  158  of  this  vol 


268 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  Egypt  contained,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  no  notice  of  their 
settlement,  residence  or  departure.  Nor  do  the  monuments  sup- 
ply the  deficiency  ;  except  that  they  appear  to  have  been  employed 
in  brick-making  in  the  reign  of  Thothmes  III.1  But  the  account 
which  Manetho  really  gives  of  the  departure  of  the  Jews,  though 
by  his  own  confession  derived  from  unauthentic  and  fabulous 
sources2,  deserves  attention  as  exhibiting  the  popular  belief. 
Josephus  having  represented  Manetho  as  identifying  the  Jews  with 
the  Hyksos,  charges  him  with  falsehood  in  mentioning  Amenophis3 
as  the  king  under  whom  the  Exodus  took  place,  whgn  he  had 
himself  declared  it  to  be  Tethmosis ;  but  Manetho  is  liable  to  no 
such  imputation,  and  it  is  Josephus  who  has  sacrificed  truth  to 
national  pride.  This  popular  account  represents  the  expelled 
nation,  not  as  foreigners,  but  as  an  impure  and  diseased  portion  of 
the  Egyptian  people.  "  Amenophis,  a  pious  king,  desirous  of 
obtaining  a  vision  of  the  gods,  such  as  Horus  his  predecessor  had 
enjoyed,  had  been  exhorted  by  his  namesake  Amenophis,  an 
inspired  man,  to  clear  the  land  of  all  impure  persons,  and  those 
who  labored  under  any  bodily  defect.  He  accordingly  collected 
them  to  the  number  of  80,000,  and  relegated  them  to  the  quarries 
eastward  of  the  Nile,  along  with  the  separated  portion  of  the  other 
Egyptians.  It  happened  that  among  the  leprous  persons,  who 
in  virtue  of  the  edict  were  consigned  to  this  region  and  condemned 
to  labor,  were  some  learned  priests.  The  soothsayer  who  had 
given  advice  to  the  king  to  clear  his  land,  was  alarmed  wnen  he 
thought  of  the  hostility  which  he  should  bring  down  on  the  part 
of  the  gods  by  the  violence  offered  to  their  ministers,  and  put  an 
end  to  his  life,  leaving  behind  him  a  written  prediction,  that  the 
impure  persons  would  obtain  auxiliaries  and  be  masters  of  Egypt 
for  thirteen  years.     The  king,  moved  by  their  sufferings,  assigned 


1  See  p.  194  of  this  vol  3  See  p.  159  of  this  vol.,  note  V 

*  'Kfievtlxpiv  ti<moif\aai  £///?<SAt^iov  fiaai\£a.     (C.  Ap.  1,  26.) 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


269 


them  as  an  abode  the  Tvphonian  city  of  Abaris,  which  had  once 
been  occupied  by  the  Shepherds,  but  was  then  unpeopled.  Here 
they  chose  for  themselves  a  leader  Osarsiph,  one  of  the  priests  of 
Heliopolis.  He  formed  them  into  a  confederacy,  whose  principle 
was  hostility  to  the  religion  of  Egypt  and  opposition  to  its  laws 
and  customs.  Having  fortified  their  city  they  sent  for  aid  to  the 
Shepherds  who  had  been  expelled  by  Tethmosis  and  then  occupied 
Jerusalem,  and  invited  them  to  invade  Egypt  by  the  promise  of 
re-establishing  them  in  the  country  from  which  they  had  been 
expelled.  Two  hundred  thousand  men  obeyed  the  call,  and  Ame- 
nophis  went  to  meet  them  with  300,000  men,  but  thinking  that 
he  was  acting  in  opposition  to  the  divine  will,  withdrew  with  his 
forces  into  Ethiopia,  leaving  behind  him  his  son  Sethos  (called 
also  Rameses  from  Rampses  his  father),  a  child  of  five  years  old, 
having  first  collected  together  the  most  honored  of  the  sacred 
animals,  and  warned  the  priests  to  bury  their  images.  Here  he 
remained  during  the  fated  period  of  thirteen  years,  while  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and  the  impure  men  of  Egypt  committed 
all  manner  of  outrages,  plundering  the  temples,  mutilating  the 
images  of  the  gods,  and  compelling  the  priests  to  kill  and  cook 
the  sacred  animals.  The  priest  Osarsiph  changed  his  name  to 
Moses  when  he  joined  this  race.  At  the  end  of  the  thirteen  years 
Amenophis  returned  with  a  great  force,  and  with  his  son  Rampses 
attacked  the  Shepherds  and  the  impure  persons,  and  pursued  them 
to  the  borders  of  Syria." 

We  cannot  recognize  in  this  tale  anything  that  claims  even  the 
character  of  an  original  historical  tradition,  disguised  and  perverted 
by  length  of  time  and  national  feeling.  It  might  have  originated 
in  the  age  when  the  Jews  began  to  settle  themselves  in  Egypt,  and 
by  the  establishment  of  their  monotheistic  worship  to  give  offence 
to  the  religious  feeling  of  the  Egyptians1,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the 

1  Is.  xix  18.    Plutarch,  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363,  makes  Typhon  the  father  of 


270 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Exodus ;  for  the  fundamental  fact  which  it  implies,  the  religious 
antagonism  of  the  Jewish  and  Egyptian  people,  extended  through 
all  times,  and  found  an  expression  in  this  form1.  Beyond  this 
there  is  scarcely  a  resemblance  to  the  Scripture  narrative.  Instead 
of  immigrants,  immemorially  hostile  to  the  polytheism  of  Egypt, 
the  founders  of  the  Jewish  nation  are  impure  Egyptians,  and  their 
leader  a  renegade  priest.  The  bitterness  of  national  and  religious 
hatred  and  contempt  is  expressed  by  representing  them  as  origi- 
nally a  company  of  lepers,  a  disease  of  which  we  do  not  read  in 
Scripture  before  their  residence  in  Egypt,  but  which  seems  to  have 
been  rife  among  them  afterwards,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  anx- 
ious precautions  of  the  Law  against  this  disease2.  The  historical 
narrative  and  the  tale  agree  in  the  circumstance  that  the  departure 
of  the  Jewish  people  was  accompanied  by  calamity  to  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  all  the  circumstances  of  that  calamity  are  entirely  differ- 
ent. The  Amenophis  to  whom  it  refers,  if  an  historical  personage, 
must  be  the  Menephthah  of  the  monuments,  the  father  of  Rameses- 
Sesostris ;  we  know  his  history  from  these  monuments  with  con- 
siderable minuteness,  and  it  is  quite  inconsistent  with  the  story  of 
Manetho.  Probably,  however,  Amenophis  has  been  introduced 
into  the  story,  without  regard  to  chronology,  from  his  high  repu- 
tation for  piety3.  What  Jews  and  Christians  regard  as  an  act  of  cru- 
elty and  injustice,  the  Egyptians  considered  as  the  necessary  means 
of  obtaining  the  favor  or  averting  the  displeasure  of  the  gods.  The 

Hierosolymue  and  Judaeus,  and  all  the  places  connected  especially  with 
Typhon  were  on  the  eastern  side  of  Egypt. 

1  Clueremon  (Jos.  c.  Apion.  1,  32)  makes  Moses,  whose  Egyptian  name 
was  Tisitlien,  and  Joseph,  whose  name  was  Peteseph,  to  be  hierogrammats, 
and  the  leaders  of  the  2,500,000  impure  persons.  According  to  Lysima- 
chus,  Bocchoris  was  the  king  who  endeavored  to  clear  his  country  of  impure 
persons  by  drowning  them. 

3  The  story  of  Job  proves  that  the  leprosy  was  considered  as  indicating 
the  extremest  degree  of  divine  displeasure  and  consequent  guilt. 

6  See  p.  1*76  of  this  voL 


THE  NINETEENTH  DYNASTY. 


271 


king  was  to  be  rewarded,  according  to  one  account,  by  a  sight  of 
the  gods,  according  to  others,  by  deliverance  from  pestilence1,  or  from 
the  displeasure  of  Isis2,  or  famine3,  if  he  destroyed  or  expelled  the 
enemies  of  the  gods.  Popular  fable,  such  as  we  are  dealing  with, 
would  naturally  fix  on  an  eminent  name  like  that  of  Amenophis, 
whose  connexion  with  Ethiopia  gave  probability  to  the  account  of 
his  flight  to  that  country. 

Who  was  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  in  the  silence  of  Egyptian 
monuments  and  the  uncertainty  of  Jewish  chronology,  we  may 
never  be  able  to  ascertain.  The  most  important  fact  in  reference 
to  the  providential  character  of  that  event,  a  crisis  in  the  religious 
history  of  the  world,  is,  that  Israel  was  brought  out  of  Egypt,  not 
in  a  period  of  its  weakness  and  depression,  but  when  its  monarchy 
was  warlike  and  powerful;  and  only  the  strong  hand  and  out- 
stretched arm  of  Jehovah  could  have  effected  its  deliverance. 

We  could,  not  suppose  that  this  event  was  accomplished  by  the 
aid  of  an  auxiliary  body  of  Palestinian  Hyksos,  without  imputing 
to  the  author  of  the  book  of  Exodus  a  wilful  suppression  of  the 
truth.  But  it  is  possible  that  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  under 
the  first  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty  may  not  have  been  so  com- 
plete, but  that  a  considerable  remnant  of  the  population  was  left 
behind  in  the  country  eastward  of  the  Delta,  and  that  uniting 
themselves  with  the  Israelites,  they  may  have  contributed  to  pro- 
duce that  great  increase  of  numbers  which  alarmed  the  kings  of 
Egypt.  It  was  probably  during  the  close  union  of  Phoenicia  with 
Egypt  that  the  alphabetical  character  of  the  former  was  arranged, 
and  learned  by  the  Israelites.  In  the  preceding  part  of  the  history 
there  is  no  trace  of  its  use;  but  from  the  account  of  the  giving  of 
the  Law,  it  is  evident  that  it  was  known  at  the  Exodus,  though 
probably  little  diffused  among  the  nation  at  large4.    Such  an 

1  Diod.  Fr.  lib.  40.  m 

9  Chaer.  ap.  Jos.  e.  Ap.  1,  32.  *  Jos.  w.  s.  1,  33. 

4  The  mention  of  a  signet-ring  in  the  history  of  Judah  is  no  proof  of  the 


(2  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 

adaptation  of  the  phonetic  system  of  the  Egyptians  is  more  likely 
to  have  been  made  by  the  Phoenicians  than  by  the  Jews,  and  the 
use  of  the  same  alphabet  by  both  may  be  best  explained  by  their 
dwelling  together  in  Egypt  before  they  became  neighbors  in  the 
land  of  Canaan. 

During  their  residence  in  Egypt,  and  probably  in  consequence 
of  this  intermixture,  the  common  people  among  the  Israelites 
appear  to  have  lost  in  great  measure  their  belief  in  the  God  of 
their  forefathers.  When  Moses  came  with  a  message  from  him,  it 
is  evident  that  he  was  not  known  to  them  under  his  distinctive 
appellation ;  nor  have  we  any  account  of  their  religious  history 
during  the  whole  interval  from  the  settlement  in  Goshen  to  the 
Exodus.  Their  ancient  faith  was  revived  by  the  mission  of  Moses 
and  the  events  of  their  deliverance,  but  there  are  evident  marks  of 
the  prevalence  both  of  Egyptian  and  Phoenician  superstitions 
among  them,  notwithstanding  the  repugnance  which  their  tradi- 
tionary usages  created  between  them  and  the  Egyptians1.  As  the 
land  of  Goshen  bordered  on  Heliopolis,  and  was  not  far  removed 
from  Memphis,  the  chief  seats  of  the  worship  of  Mnevis  and  Apis, 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  in  their  first  distrust  of  the  power  of  Jeho- 
vah, they  recurred  to  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf.  The  prophet 
Amos  informs  us,  that  during  their  wanderings  in  the  Desert,  they 
neglected  the  sacrifices  of  Jehovah  for  those  of  Moloch  and  Chiun2, 
Palestinian  and  Arabian  divinities8,  with  whom  they  had  probably 
become  acquainted  by  their  intercourse  with  the  Palestinian  and 
Arabian  Hyksos. 

use  of  alphabetical  characters  in  the  patriarchal  times.  Though  worn  only 
as  an  ornament,  of  Egyptian  fabric,  it  would  serve,  like  the  bracelets  and 
the  staff,  to  identify  the  owner,  which  is  all  that  the  story  requires.  (Gen. 
xxxviii.  18,  25.) 

1  Exod.  viii.  26.  *  Amos  v.  25.  '  Selden  de  Bis  Syris,  c  6,  41. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


273 


THE  THIRD  VOLUME  OF  MANETHO. 


Twentieth  Dynasty, 


Twelve  Diospolitan  kings,  who  reigned 


Years. 
135 


[Eusebius  in  Syncellus  (p.  139,  Dind.)  178  years.    Arnien.  172.] 

The  monuments  have  fortunately  preserved  for  us  the  names  of 
the  sovereigns  of  this  dynasty,  which  appear  to  have  been  lost  in 
Manetho,  from  the  circumstance  of  their  being  all  Rameses.  Ac- 
cording to  the  reckoning  of  those  who  make  Rameses  II.  and  III.  to 
be  one  and  the  same,  Rameses  III.  will  be  the  first  of  this  dynasty, 
son  of  Remerri  or  Merira,  who  himself  never  reigned.  According 
to  our  arrangement  it  will  begin  with  Rameses  IV.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  succession  which  Lepsius  has  derived  from  the  monu- 
ments : 


Rameses  VHI. , 
Rameses  IX. 
Rameses  X. 
Rameses  XI. 
Rameses  XII. 
Rameses  XIII. 


The  monuments  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  IV.  show  that  the 
power  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties  had  been  transmitted  unim- 
paired to  the  20th.  The  pavilion  of  Medinet  Aboo  or  Southern 
Rameseion,  exhibits  the  splendid  ceremony  of  his  coronation1.  In 
the  first  compartment  the  king  appears,  seated  under  a  canopy,  the 


Rameses  IV. 
Rameses  V. 
Rameses  VL 
Rameses  VII. 


-  Brothers  reigning  in  succession. 


1  Vol.  i.  p.  136,  137.    Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  pi.  76. 

12* 


274 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


cornice  of  which  is  formed  by  a  row  of  the  royal  serpents  or  urcei. 
Two  figures  of  the  goddess  of  Truth  and  Justice  stand  behind  his 
throne,  and  cover  the  back  of  it  with  their  outstretched  wings. 
Rameses  wears  his  helmet  and  carries  in  his  hand  the  emblem  of 
Life,  and  the  hook  and  scourge,  the  emblems  of  Dominion,  which 
serve  also  to  identify  him  with  Osiris.  The  sphinx  and  the  hawk, 
symbols  of  royalty,  adorn  the  side  of  the  throne,  which  is  supported 
by  the  figure  of  a  lion  and  of  two  captives.  The  poles  on  which 
this  canopy  is  carried  are  supported  on  the  shoulders  of  twelve 
princes  of  the  blood  ;  other  attendants  carry  a  broad  umbrella  and 
feather-fans.  Three  priests,  distinguishable  by  their  shaven  crowns, 
walk  beside  the  throne,  carrying  the  arms  and  insignia  of  the  king, 
and  four  immediately  behind  it.  They  are  followed  by  six  more 
princes  of  the  blood,  some  with  hatchets  and  some  with  feather- 
fans.  Military  attendants  bearing  the  steps  of  the  throne  and 
square  blocks  of  wood  on  which  it  might  be  rested,  when  lowered 
from  the  shoulders  of  the  bearers,  close  the  lower  line  of  the  pro- 
cession. In  the  upper,  immediately  behind  the  throne,  walk  two 
men  in  civil  costume,  who  from  their  attitude  appear  to  be  making 
proclamation1 ;  they  are  followed  by  princes  of  the  blood,  fan- 
bearers  and  guards.  In  front  of  the  throne  walk  two  priests,  who 
turn  their  faces  back  towards  the  king  and  scatter  grains  of  incense 
on  a  censer  ;  a  scribe  reads  from  a  roll ;  two  more  princes  of  the 
blood,  mixed  with  the  priests  and  military  officers,  make  up  the 
rest  of  the  procession,  which  is  headed  by  drummers,  trumpeters, 
and  players  of  the  double  pipe. 

The  second  compartment  begins  with  a  libation  and  burning  of 
incense  made  by  the  king,  who  has  descended  from  his  throne,  to 
Amun  Khem.  The  statue  next  appears  carried  in  procession  by 
twenty-two  priests,  hidden  all  but  the  feet  and  heads  by  the 

1  The  hand  raised  towards  the  mouth  is  an  indication  of  rehearsing  in 
Egyptian  pictures. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


275 


drapery  of  the  platform  on  which  the  statue  is  erected.  The  king 
walks  before  the  god,  having  a  staff  in  one  hand,  a  sceptre  in  the 
other,  and  the  red  crown  of  the  Lower  Country  on  his  head.  He 
is  preceded  by  a  white  bull,  before  whom  a  priest  burns  incense, 
and  a  long  train  of  other  priests  carry  standards  on  which  are  fixed 
images  of  the  jackal,  the  bull,  the  cynocephalus,  the  hawk,  em- 
blems respectively  of  Anubis,  Apis,  Thoth  and  Horus.  The  images 
and  shields  of  some  of  the  predecessors  of  Rameses  are  also  borne 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  priests,  but  a  more  complete  succession  is 
given  afterwards.  The  king  now  appears  wearing  the  Pschent, 
which  on  the  Rosetta  stone1  he  is  described  as  having  put  on  when 
he  entered  the  temple  of  Memphis,  to  perform  the  ceremonies  pre- 
scribed on  taking  the  throne.  The  hieroglyphics  in  front  of  the 
king  describe  him  as  putting  on  the  crown  of  the  Upper  and  Lower 
countries.  Four  birds  are  at  the  same  time  let  loose  by  the  priests, 
and  the  columns  of  hieroglyphics  above  them  being  headed  by  the 
symbols  of  the  four  cardinal  points,  it  has  been  ingeniously  con- 
jectured by  Champollion2,  that  the  birds  were  to  announce  to  East, 
West,  North  and  South,  the  fact  that  Rameses  IV.  was  crowned. 

In  the  last  compartment  the  king  has  laid  aside  his  crown,  and 
with  a  helmet  on  his  head  cuts  with  a  sickle  six  ears  of  corn,  which 
a  priest  binds  together  and  offers  to  the  sacred  bull.  This  cere- 
mony no  doubt  was  emblematical  of  the  relation  between  the 
kingly  office  and  agriculture,  the  great  source  of  the  prosperity  of 
Egypt.  It  was  also  very  appropriate  to  the  character  of  Amun 
Khem,  who  symbolized  the  productive  power  of  nature.  The 
queen,  who  was  not  present  at  the  procession  of  the  statue  of 
Amun  Khem,  appears  in  the  two  last  compartments,  not,  however, 
as  taking  a  part  in  the  ceremony,  but  only  as  a  spectator. 

1  KoXot)//£VF/  fiaaCKtia  xp  %  c  v  r ,  f\v  irepidsficvos  dfffj'Xdev  ets  rd  iv  Mf/^ct  *  *  * 
TtXeaOr]  ra  vofii^Ofieva  rj?  itapahjipti  rfjs  fiaai'ke'ias.     (L.  11,  12  from  the  end.) 

*  Lettres  d'Egypte,  p.  347. 


276 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


The  interior  court  of  the  palace  at  Medinet-Aboo  contains  an 
inscription  in  not  fewer  than  seventy-five  columns,  bearing  date  the 
fifth  year  of  his  reign,  in  which  his  victories  over  various  nations 
are  commemorated1.  It  is  not  accompanied  by  any  historical  pic- 
ture, and  is  in  some  parts  injured  by  time  and  in  others  obscure  in 
its  construction  ;  but  enough  remains  and  is  intelligible  to  furnish 
us  with  the  information  that  the  king  had  already  made  two  expe- 
ditions3, and  reduced  into  submission  various  nations  of  Asia,  some 
of  whose  names  have  occurred  in  the  historical  inscriptions  of  his 
predecessors,  others  not  mentioned  before.  Among  the  former  are 
the  Mennahom  and  the  Tohen  ;  among  the  latter  the  Mashiosha3. 

The  inscription  is  supposed  by  Rosellini,  from  its  redundant  and 
tautological  style,  and  the  more  than  usual  quantity  of  flattery  to 
the  king  which  it  contains,  to  be  the  substance  of  some  poem  com- 
posed to  celebrate  the  expedition.  An  embassy  from  the  "  men  of 
the  great  island  "  is  also  mentioned,  to  which  the  king  is  said  to 
have  "  passed  like  a  waterfowl  over  the  waters4."  This  island  can 
scarcely  be  any  other  than  Cyprus,  which,  according  to  Manetho, 
as  reported  by  Josephus,  was  a  conquest  of  Sethosis  Rameses5. 

Of  the  next  expedition  of  Rameses  IV.,  undertaken  in  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  years  of  his  reign,  we  have  more  ample 
details  in  a  magnificent  series  of  bas-reliefs  on  the  north-eastern 
walls  of  the  palace  of  Medinet-Aboo6.  The  whole  progress  of  a 
campaign  is  recorded  there.  We  have  first  an  allocution  of  his 
army  by  the  king ;  he  stands  on  a  raised  platform ;  the  com- 

Rosellini,  M.  R.  tav.  cxxxix.  cxl. 

*  His  return  from  one  with  his  prisoners  is  mentioned,  cols.  40,  41  (Ros. 
Mon.  Stor.  4,  88),  but  he  appears  subsequently  to  have  undertaken 
another. 

*  Supposed  by  Mr.  Osburn  to  be  the  inhabitants  of  Dar-mesek,  Damascus 
(Ancient  Egypt,  p.  102.) 

4  Cols.  51-53.  6  Cont  Apion  1,  15. 

6  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  14-50 ;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  cxxiv.-cxxxiv 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


manders  have  received  their  banners  and  kneel  with  them  in  their 
hands,  while  others  stand  at  a  distance  and  lift  their  hands  towards  him 
in  homage.  In  another  division  the  arming  of  the  troops  is  repre- 
sented ;  bows,  quivers,  spears,  battle-axes  and  scimitars  are  piled  on 
the  ground,  and  distributed  by  the  officers  to  men  who  come  in 
companies  to  receive  them.  The  lowest  compartment,  which  per- 
haps should  be  considered  as  the  first  in  order,  exhibits  the  enrol- 
ment of  the  soldiers,  performed  by  a  prince  of  the  blood,  attended 
by  his  officers.  Next  begins  the  march.  The  king  in  his  biga  is 
accompanied  by  his  guards,  and  as  Diodorus  describes  Osymandyas, 
by  a  lion ;  before  him  is  another  chariot  on  which  is  erected  the 
royal  standard,  the  head  of  Amun  with  the  disk  of  the  sun.  In 
six  lines  of  hieroglyphics  placed  above,  the  god  promises  to  go 
before  him  into  the  land  of  the  enemy,  and  make  him  pass  victo- 
rious through  it.  This  and  the  following  scene  represent  the 
march  through  Egypt ;  the  next  exhibits  the  Egyptians  in  conflict 
with  their  enemies.  Their  head-dress  is  different  from  that  of  any 
foreigners  whom  we  have  yet  found  on  the  monuments  ;  a  high 
cap  or  helmet,  wider  at  the  top  than  at  the  base,  divided  into 
colored  stripes  with  disks  of  metal  attached  to  it,  descending  on 
the  back  of  the  neck,  and  fastened  beneath  the  chin.  It  is  not 
unlike  the  head-dress  of  figures  on  the  Persepolitan  monuments1, 
but  in  other  respects  their  costume  is  different.  They  carry  round 
shields,  with  spears  and  short  straight  swords.  The  arrows  of 
the  king  are  making  havoc  among  them  ;  they  fly  in  all  directions, 
and  some  of  them  appear  to  have  seized  on  an  Egyptian  chariot,  of 
which  the  driver  had  been  killed,  to  aid  in  their  escape.  They  were 
probably  a  people  of  a  nomadic  life ;  for  in  the  rear  are  waggons 
with  solid  wheels  and  bodies  of  wicker  work,  drawn  by  oxen,  con- 
taining their  women  and  children.  Their  name,  which  was  read 
Tokari  by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  is  read  FeJckaroo  by  Champollion 


1  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  367. 


278 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


and  Rosellini1,  but  no  name  in  ancient  geography  has  been  found 
by  which  it  can  be  explained.  The  Egyptians  were  aided  in  this 
campaign  by  a  body  of  foreign  auxiliaries,  who  must  have  been 
taken  permanently  into  their  service,  as  they  form  a  part  of  the 
army  when  it  sets  out  on  its  march,  and  have  previously  appeared 
among  the  troops  of  Rameses  III.  They  have  a  helmet  of  a  very 
peculiar  shape,  a  horned  crescent  being  fixed  on  the  top,  with  the 
addition  of  a  stem  surmounted  by  a  ball2.  Their  name  is  written 
Shairetaan,  with  an  addition  which  shows  them  to  have  been  a 
maritime  people,  and  though  at  times  in  alliance  they  were  at 
other  times  in  hostility  with  Egypt. 

The  next  scene  represents  a  lion-hunt ;  one  of  these  animals 
lies  in  the  agonies  of  death  under  the  feet  of  the  royal  horses  ; 
another  pierced  with  three  arrows  is  taking  refuge  among  the 
water-plants,  which  indicate  the  vicinity  of  a  river.  Remembering 
the  allusions  of  the  Jewish  prophets  to  the  lions  which  harbor  on 
the  banks  of  Jordan,  and  are  driven  out  by  the  swelling  of  its 
waters3,  we  can  hardly  avoid  the  conclusion  that  Rameses  was  now 
on  his  progress  through  Palestine.  If  this  be  the  case,  it  will  be 
somewhere  on  the  coast  of  Palestine,  or  a  country  not  very  distant, 
that  we  should  seek  for  the  scene  of  the  next  transaction — a  naval 
fight  between  the  Egyptians  and  the  nation  whom  they  had  just 
before  defeated  by  land.  It  is  the  only  representation  of  a  naval 
battle  remaining  among  the  Egyptian  monuments4.  The  Egyp- 
tian vessels  have  both  oars  and  sails,  those  of  the  enemy  sails  only, 
and  they  differ  in  their  build  ;  the  prow  of  the  Egyptian  vessel  is 
the  head  of  a  lion,  of  the  other  that  of  a  water-fowl ;  the  opposite 

1  Osburn  makes  them  Ekronites,  i.  e.  Philistines.  (Ane.  Egypt,  p.  107, 
140.) 

2  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  iii.  2,  135;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  ci.  He  calls  them 
"royal  guards,"  but  they  were  evidently  not  Egyptians.  Osburn  considers 
them  as  Sidonians.    (Anc.  Egypt,  p.  119.) 

8  Jer.  xlix.  19  ;  1,  44.  4  Vol.  i.  p.  195. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


279 


end  is  armed  with  a  spike.  The  rowers  are  protected  by  a  raised 
bulwark  which  runs  aloDg  the  side ;  the  combatants  assail  each 
other  with  arrows  from  a  distance,  or  board  and  fight  hand  to  hand 
when  the  vessels  are  in  contact.  The  Egyptians  as  usual  are  com- 
pletely victorious ;  one  of  the  enemies'  ships  has  been  upset  and  is 
sinking ;  another  has  grounded,  and  the  crew  are  endeavoring  to 
escape.  But  the  king  and  a  body  of  archers  are  stationed  on  the 
shore  ;  the  fugitives  are  slain  or  made  prisoners,  and  are  marched 
off  bound  under  the  convoy  of  Egyptian  soldiers.  It  is  remarkable 
that  among  the  crew  of  the  hostile  vessels  are  many  of  the  same 
nation,  distinguishable  by  their  helmet  with  the  horns  and  disk, 
who  serve  in  the  army  of  Rameses.  We  need  not,  however,  sup- 
pose that  some  change  of  policy  had  converted  them  from  allies 
into  enemies  ;  Greeks  were  found  fighting  against  Greeks  in  the 
armies  of  Persia. 

In  the  next  compartment  the  king  appears,  having  laid  aside 
his  arms,  in  his  civil  costume,  and  again  harangues  his  soldiers, 
and  distributes  arms  and  insignia  to  the  officers  as  rewards  of  merit. 
The  hands  of  the  slaughtered  enemies  are  told  out  before  him  and 
their  numbers  recorded  by  the  scribes,  and  the  prisoners  led  up, 
some  fettered  by  the  arms  and  others  by  the  wrists.  The  presenta- 
tion of  the  captives  to  the  triad  of  Theban  gods,  Maut,  Amun  and 
Chonso,  closes  the  series ;  but  here,  besides  the  Fekkaroo  pri- 
soners of  another  people  are  introduced,  the  Bebo,  against  whom 
Rameses  IV.  carried  on  wars.  This  people  have  been  incidentally 
mentioned  in  the  inscription  which  records  the  expedition  of 
Rameses  III.  in  his  fifth  year  against  the  Sheto,  whose  neighbors 
they  must  have  been.  The  walls  of  the  second  court  of  the  palace 
of  Medinet-Aboo  give  the  details  of  this  or  some  other  war  of 
Rameses  IV.  against  them.  Probably  the  war  occurred  at  some 
later  period  of  his  reign  ;  for  in  the  presentation  of  the  prisoners  to 
Amun,  the  Fekkaroo  and  Rebo  appear  both  as  prisoners,  whereas 
in  the  campaign  represented  in  the  inner  court,  the  Fekkaroo 


280 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


are  acting  as  auxiliaries  against  the  Rebo.  From  their  costume 
we  should  suppose  the  last  to  be  the  inhabitants  of  a  somewhat 
colder  climate,  as  in  addition  to  tunics  they  wear  long  upper  vests, 
crossed  by  bands  of  a  different  color,  open  below  and  fastened  on 
by  a  strap  over  the  shoulder.  This  garment  appears  sometimes 
to  have  been  of  leather.  The  head  is  covered  with  a  close-fitting 
cap,  and  adorned  with  feathers  ;  but  in  war  they  wore  a  helmet 
or  cap  fastened  by  a  strap  beneath  the  chin.  Their  physiognomy 
also  indicates  a  northern  race ;  their  eyes  are  blue,  the  nose  aqui- 
line, the  beard  red.  Occasionally  we  find  the  limbs  tattooed. 
The  slaughter  made  of  them  was  great ;  3000  hands,  according 
to  the  inscription,  are  poured  out  before  the  king1,  as  he  sits  on 
his  chariot  after  the  battle  to  receive  the  returns  ;  and  an  equal 
number  in  three  other  compartments,  indicating  that  6000  had 
been  slain.  Besides  these,  1000  appear  to  have  been  made  prison- 
ers. As  the  conclusion  of  the  whole,  the  king  returns  to  Egypt 
and  presents  his  captives  to  Amunre  and  Maut. 

The  sixteenth  is  the  latest  year  of  Rameses  IV.  that  has  been 
found  on  the  monuments,  and  the  lists  give  only  the  duration  of 
the  whole  dynasty ;  but  from  the  extent  of  the  works  executed  in 
his  reign,  and  the  size  and  magnificence  of  his  tomb,  we  may  pre- 
sume that  it  was  of  more  than  the  average  length.  He  appears 
originally  to  have  destined  for  himself  a  tomb  at  the  very  entrance 
of  the  Bab-ei-Melook,  but  to  have  abandoned  his  design,  when  the 
excavation  had  been  carried  but  a  short  way,  and  chosen  a  spot 
further  on  in  the  valley2.    It  had  been  known  as  the  Harper's 

1  This  and  another  kind  of  mutilation  which  the  bodies  of  the  slain  had 
undergone  are  inaccurately  represented  by  Diodorus  as  if  performed  on 
the  living  prisoners.  'Ei>  6t  ru  devTepoi  roi'^w  roij  ai'^paXwrouj  vtto  tov  (Saci\iu3S 
dyontuovi  eipyaaOai  rd  t£  aiSoTa  kcli  raj  %eTpas  uvk  i^ovras'  6i  Sokciv  Srj\ov<r9ai 
6i6ri  ratj  ipv^aii  dvavSpoi  koli  vara  raj  iv  roig  Seivois  ivtpyeias  a%eipes  rjaav  (1,  48). 

This  is  part  of  his  description  of  the  tomb  of  Osymandyas,  in  which  various 
buildings  appear  to  be  confounded. 

a  According  to  Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  Rameses  III  began  the  tomb,  and  his 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY". 


281 


Tomb,  long  before  the  discovery  of  the  hieroglyphics  assigned  it 
to  Rameses  IV.,  Bruce  having  copied  two  remarkable  figures  of 
harpers  which  one  of  the  apartments  contains.  Its  whole  extent 
is  405  feet ;  not,  however,  to  that  direct  depth  in  the  mountain, 
the  line  of  direction  having  been  diverted  to  avoid  interfering  with 
an  adjoining  tomb.  The  principal  hall  contained  the  sarcophagus 
of  the  king,  but  it  had  long  been  rifled.  It  is  of  red  granite,  and 
is  covered  with  inscriptions  which  have  been  filled  up  with  a  green 
enamel.  The  sarcophagus  itself,  seven  feet  in  depth  and  fourteen 
in  length,  is  in  the  Louvre,  the  cover  at  Cambridge. 

The  queen  of  Rameses  IV.  is  not  named,  though  she  is  repre- 
sented in  the  scene  of  the  Coronation  ;  but  on  the  jambs  of  a  door 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Queens,  the  shield  of  Rameses  VI.  appears  on 
one  side,  and  on  the  other  that  of  "  the  royal  mother,  ruler  of  the 
world,  Ise."  She  must  therefore  have  been  the  queen  of  Rameses 
IV.1  It  is  probable  that  his  three  brothers,  one  of  whom  ascended 
the  throne  before  and  two  after  him,  were  also  her  sons  ;  some  at 
least  of  the  numerous  other  princes  of  the  blood  who  appear  in 
the  procession  at  his  coronation  must  have  been  children  by  his 
concubines.  That  he  maintained  a  harem  we  know  from  the 
representations  in  some  of  the  smaller  apartments  of  his  pavilion  at 
Medinet-Aboo,  where  he  is  seen  among  them,  playing  at  a  game 
of  draughts  or  chess2.  Ten  princes  appear  with  their  names  in 
one  of  the  courts  of  the  palace  ;  the  inscriptions  of  the  four  firsl  of 
these  have  received  additions,  as  they  successively  came  to  the 
throne ;  the  rest  are  qualified  simply  as  princes. 

We  found  a  temporary  agreement  between  the  authentic  and 
monumental  history  of  Egypt,  and  the  legendary  history  as  it  was 
received  by  Herodotus,  in  the  reign  of  Rameses  III.,  his  Sesostris. 

.egend  can  still  be  traced  near  the  entrance  beneath  that  of  Rameses  IV. 
Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  2,  207.) 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  119. 

2  Rosellini,  Mon.  Civ.  3,  116 ;  Mon.  Reali,  tav.  cxxii.  2,  3. 


282 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


It  disappears  again  in  that  of  his  successor,  whom  he  calls  Pheron, 
and  of  whom  he  expressly  says  that  he  undertook  no  expedition. 
The  interpolation  of  Proteus  after  Pheron  among  the  kings  of 
Egypt,  in  order  to  connect  its  history  with  that  of  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey,  shows  how  little  regard  was  paid  to  truth  in  framing  this 
legendary  tale.  It  is  therefore  useless  to  seek  among  the  successors 
of  Rameses  III.  for  the  Rampsinitus  of  Herodotus  who  surpassed 
in  riches  all  his  successors,  and  built  himself  a  treasure-house,  from 
which  the  sons  of  the  architect  ingeniously  contrived  to  abstract  a 
portion  of  his  wealth  by  means  of  a  moveable  stone.  The  name 
appears  to  contain  that  of  Rameses,  which  is  spelt  among  other 
varieties  Rampses  in  Manetho ;  but  the  story  of  his  descent  into 
Hades,  and  his  playing  at  dice  there  with  Ceres,  so  clearly  dis- 
closes the  unhistorical  character  of  the  accounts  which  Herodotus 
received,  as  to  deter  us  from  any  attempt  to  place  him  in  relation 
with  really  historical  personages1.  Diodorus  having  related  the 
blindness  of  Sesoosis  II.,  who  corresponds  with  the  Pheron  of  Hero- 
dotus, passes  over  a  long  line  of  his  successors  with  the  remark 
that  they  did  nothing  worthy  of  being  recorded. 

This  appears  to  be  true  of  the  successor  of  Rameses  IV.  All 
record  of  foreign  expeditions  ceases  with  his  reign.  The  principal 
memorials  of  Rameses  V.  are  the  lateral  inscriptions  of  the  obelisk 
which  Thothmes  L  erected  at  Karnak.  They  contain,  however,  no 
historical  fact.  His  tomb  in  the  Bab-el-Melook  is  small ;  the  sar- 
cophagus remains  in  it,  but  has  been  broken2.  Rameses  VI.  has 
in  several  places  effaced  the  name  of  his  brother,  as  if  some  hos- 
tilitv  between  them  had  preceded  his  elevation  to  the  throne  ;s  but 
we  have  no  memorials  of  his  reign,  and  can  only  conjecture  that  it 
was  long,  from  the  unusual  amount  of  labor  bestowed  on  the  pre- 
paration of  his  tomb.    It  is  342  feet  in  length,  descending  by  a 


1  Herod.  2,  121,  122.  2  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  <fc  Thebes,  2,  212. 

8  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  118. 


THE  TWENTIETH  DYNASTY. 


2-83 


gradual  slope  to  the  depth  of  25  feet  below  the  ground,  and 
divided  into  a  number  of  chambers1.  The  whole  surface  of  the 
walls  and  ceilings  is  covered  with  a  profusion  of  colored  sculptures 
of  minute  size,  chiefly  astronomical  and  mythical.  One  of  them  is 
the  Judgment-scene  before  Osiris  already  described2,  and  the  sup- 
posed return  of  a  wicked  soul  to  the  world.  Of  Kameses  VII. 
there  is  absolutely  no  memorial  except  his  tomb,  which  is  of  much 
less  finished  execution  than  that  of  his  predecessor.  The  sarco- 
phagus is  excavated  in  the  rock  of  the  floor  to  the  depth  of  four 
feet,  and  covered  with  a  slab  of  granite.  Rameses  VIII.  is  known 
only  by  the  occurrence  of  his  shield  among  those  of  the  other  sons 
of  Rameses  IV.  (III.  according  to  another  reckoning)  at  Medinet- 
Aboo,  and  on  two  tablets  in  the  Museum  of  Berlin.  The  titular 
shield  contains  the  figure  of  the  same  deity  as  the  phonetic  shield 
of  Setei,  and  it  has  here  also  been  effaced.  From  this  time  it  never 
occurs  in  the  monuments3.  The  shields  of  the  sovereigns  of  this 
dynasty  are  much  more  crowded  with  characters  than  those  of  the 
18th.  As  these  kings  were  all  brothers,  it  was  natural  that  the 
reigns  of  the  last  should  be  short.  His  third  year  has  been  found 
on  a  monument4.  Rameses  IX.  (VIII.)  was  according  to  Lepsius 
the  son  of  Rameses  VII.  (VI.)  He  began  a  temple  to  Chons  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Nile  near  Karnak,  but  left  it  imperfect  except 
the  sanctuary5 ;  his  tomb  is  small,  and  appears  to  have  remained 
unfinished  at  his  death,  as  the  walls  of  some  of  the  apartments 
have  figures  and  inscriptions  traced  upon  them,  but  not  sculptured. 
The  tombs  of  Rameses  X.,  XI.,  and  XII.  have  also  been  ascer- 
tained. That  of  Rameses  X.  is  executed  with  care,  and  adorned 
with  astrological  paintings.  The  seventeenth  year  of  Rameses 
XL's  reign  has  been  found  on  a  papyrus,  and  the  second  of  Rameses 

1  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  210.  9  Vol  i.  p.  402,  403. 

8  Bunsen,  B.  3,  p.  118.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  124. 
4  Bunsen,  JEgyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  119. 
6  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  125. 


284 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


XII1. ;  of  Rameses  XIII.  and  XIV.  nothing  beyond  the  names  is 
known,  which  is  the  more  indicative  of  the  inactivity  which  charac- 
terized the  last  years  of  this  dynasty,  because  Rameses  XIV. 
reigned  at  least  thirty-three  years2.  Rosellini  reckons  a  fifteenth, 
by  whom  a  hypostyle  hall  wras  added  to  the  temple  of  Chons  at 
Karnak,  founded  by  Rameses  IX.3 

The  dominion  of  Egypt  had  long  been  on  the  decline,  but 
Amunre  addresses  the  last  Rameses  in  the  same  magnificent  lan- 
guage as  his  predecessors,  and  gives  him  "  to  put  all  foreign  lands 
under  his  feet."  The  diminution  of  power  in  the  Egyptian 
monarchy  since  Rameses  IV.  was  probably  caused  or  accompanied 
by  an  increase  in  that  of  its  neighbors.  Ethiopia  seems  to  have 
regained  its  independence.  The  Phoenician  cities  must  have  been 
rapidly  rising  by  means  of  commerce  to  the  prosperity  in  which 
we  find  them  in  the  age  of  Solomon.  The  recent  discoveries  of 
the  antiquities  of  Assyria  excited  the  hope  that  by  their  means 
light  would  be  thrown  on  the  relations  of  that  country  with  Egypt, 
whose  sovereigns,  from  Thothmes  I.  to  Rameses  IV.,  repeatedly 
invaded  Mesopotamia  and  Assyria.  We  cannot,  however,  trace 
any  conformity  between  their  respective  histories,  as  disclosed  by 
their  monuments.  Those  of  Khorsabad,  Koyunjik  and  Nemroud 
are  much  later  than  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties  of  Egypt.  No 
Egyptian  appears  among  the  nations  w  ith  whom  the  Assyrians  are 
at  war4.    Yet  it  is  probable  that  when  the  invasions  of  the 

1  Amenmeses,  whom  Rosellini,  from  the  position  of  his  tomb,  would  inter- 
pose between  Rameses  XII.  and  XIII.,  has  been  already  placed  last  but 
one  in  the  19th  dynasty.    See  p.  253  of  this  vol. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  49. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  50.  4,  137.    M.  R.  tav.  cxlvi. 

4  We  do  not,  find  any  close  resemblance  between  the  Asiatic  nations 
represented  in  the  Egyptian  monuments  and  those  who  appear  in  the 
Assyrian  sculptures.  A  people  armed  with  shields,  like  those  described,  p. 
234,  are  seen  on  the  bas-reliefs  of  Khorsabad,  and  among  the  spoil  is  a  cha- 
riot, resembling  that  brought  by  the  Rotno  to  Thothmes  III.,  p.  187.  The 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST  DYNASTY.  285 

Pharaohs  ceased,  perhaps  by  means  of  successful  resistance  to 
them,  the  Assyrian  monarchy  rose  in  power.  The  Greek  tradi- 
tions begin  with  mythe  in  Semiramis,  and  end  with  it  in  Sardana- 
palus  ;  but  the  monarchy  which  these  mythes  represent  was  real, 
and  must  have  begun  in  the  thirteenth  century  b.  c.1,  that  is  about 
the  time  when  the  power  of  Egypt  declined. 

The  battle-pieces  of  the  reign  of  Rameses  IV.  are  not  inferior  in 
design  to  the  works  of  his  predecessors,  but  those  who  have  studied 
minutely  and  on  the  spot  the  remains  of  Egyptian  art  discover 
an  inferiority  in  the  execution.  The  inscriptions  which  Eameses  V. 
added  to  the  obelisk  erected  by  Thothmes  I.  betray  even  in  an 
engraving  their  inferiority  in  execution.  In  design  there  could  be 
little  difference,  art  in  its  application  to  sacred  subjects  being  so 
completely  submitted  to  established  rules;  but  we  perceive  that 
the  style  becomes  more  loaded  and  elaborate,  an  indication  of  the 
decline  of  taste. 


Twenty-first  Dynasty.    Seven  Tanite  kings. 

Years. 

Smendes,  reigned  26 

Psousexnes   46       41  Euseb. 

Nepherciieres  4 

Amexophthts  9 

Osochor   6 

PSEN'ACHES  9 

Psousennes   14       35  Euseb. 

In  all  130  years.  114  130 

Shairetana,  p.  2*78,  have  many  peculiarities  in  common  with  the  Assyrians 
of  Nemroud;  the  Tokkari  or  Fekkaroo,  p.  277,  in  their  arms  and  dress  and 
the  shape  of  their  carts  drawn  by  oxen,  bear  some  resemblance  to  a  nation 
represented  in  the  Assyrian  sculptures.    (Layard's  Nineveh,  2,  493,  foil.) 

1  Herodotus  (1,  95)  says  that  theMedes  revolted  from  the  Assyrians,  who 
had  ruled  Upper  Asia  520  years.  This  revolt  is  commonly  placed  711  b.  a 
(Clinton,  sub  anno.) 


286 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Tanis  or  Zoan,  although  its  name  now  appears  for  the  first  time 
in  Egyptian  history,  had  long  been  the  most  important  city  on  the 
coast  of  Egypt1.  The  branch  of  the  Nile  on  which  it  stood  was  the 
most  easterly  and  the  nearest  to  Palestine  and  Arabia,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Pelusiac.  It  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture  as  being 
founded  seven  years  later  than  Hebron2 ;  the  precise  date  of  the 
foundation  of  Hebron  we  do  not  know,  but  it  was  one  of  the  oldest 
towns  in  Palestine,  and  is  mentioned  in  the  history  of  Abraham. 
It  is  probable  that  Tanis  rose  into  importance  during  the  wars  of 
the  early  kings  of  the  New  Monarchy  with  the  Hyksos,  and  their 
expeditions  into  Western  Asia.  Although  Thebes  continued  to  be 
the  place  in  which  the  splendor  of  the  monarchy  was  chiefly  dis- 
played, and  where  the  sovereigns  held  their  court  during  intervals 
of  peace,  they  must  have  needed  a  residence  in  that  part  of  Lower 
Egypt  which  was  nearest  to  the  scene  of  their  most  important  ope- 
rations. That  it  should  be  at  the  same  time  not  very  distant  from 
the  sea  was  also  necessary,  when  they  established  a  navy  and 
carried  on  maritime  warfare  against  Phoenicia  and  Cyprus.  And 
as  the  eastern  branches  of  the  Nile  one  after  another  became  silted 
up,  it  is  probable  that  even  in  this  age  the  Pelusiac  mouth  may 
have  been  too  shallow  to  admit  ships  of  war.  In  the  78th  Psalm 
(vv.  12,  43)  the  wonders  which  accompanied  the  Exodus  are  said 
to  have  been  wrought  in  "  the  plain  of  Zoan."  This  Psalm  is  pro- 
bably somewhat  later  than  the  age  of  David,  but  it  proves  that  this 
was  supposed  to  have  been  for  the  time  the  residence  of  the  Pha- 
raoh who  had  "  refused  to  let  Israel  go."  In  the  age  of  Isaiah  it 
was  still  considered  as  the  capital  of  the  Delta ;  "  the  princes  of 
Zoan  and  the  princes  of  Noph"  (Memphis)  are  spoken  of 3  as  equiva- 
lent to  the  nobles  of  Egypt.  The  ambassadors  who  go  down  to 
Egypt  to  form  an  alliance  which  implied  distrust  in  Jehovah4  are 


1  See  vol.  i.  p.  46. 
8  Is.  xix.  11,  13. 


3  Numbers,  xiii.  22. 

4  Is.  xxx.  4. 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST  DYNASTY.  287 

described  as  repairing  to  Zoan  and  Hanes,  or  Heracleopolis1 ;  the 
desolation  of  Zoan  is  threatened  by  Ezekiel,  as  the  consequence  of 
the  invasion  of  Egypt  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  In  Strabo's  time  it  was 
still  a  large  town2,  the  capital  of  a  norae ;  in  the  age  of  Titus  it 
had  dwindled  to  an  insignificant  place3.  Its  ruins  attest  its  ancient 
importance;  its  principal  temple  stood  within  an  area  of  1500  feet 
by  1250,  and  appears  to  have  been  built  by  Rameses-Sesostris, 
whose  shield  is  seen  in  various  parts  of  the  ruins.  It  was  adorned 
with  an  unusual  number  of  obelisks4.  Had  its  remains  been 
explored  with  the  same  diligence  as  those  of  Middle  and  Upper 
Egypt,  we  should  probably  have  learnt  something  of  the  dynasty 
which  took  its  name  from  Tanis.  But  the  inhabitants  are  rude 
and  the  air  at  most  seasons  of  the  year  pestilential5,  and  no  travel- 
ler has  remained  here  long  enough  to  ascertain  what  may  be  buried 
beneath  the  mounds  of  earth  which  cover  the  site.  History  has 
preserved  no  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  sceptre  of  Egypt 
passed  from  the  Diospolite  dynasty  to  the  Tanite,  and  the  monu- 
ments do  not  supply  the  deficiency.  The  temple  which  Rameses 
IX.  erected  to  the  god  Chons  exhibits  a  priest,  whose  name  has 
been  read  Hraihor  or  Pehor6,  distinguishable  by  his  shaven  head 
and  panther's  skin,  and  denominated  in  his  shield  "  High-priest  of 
Araun,"  who  at  the  same  time  appears  to  have  performed  the  func- 
tions of  royalty.  In  one  compartment  of  the  sculptures  Horus 
places  on  his  head  the  white  cap,  and  Xebthi  the  red  cap,  acts 
symbolical  of  his  investiture  with  the  dominion  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Egypt.    He  even  appears  in  a  military  capacity  with  the  title  of 

1  Champollion,  L'Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  1,  309.  P.  130  of  this 
volume. 

9  Lib.  17,  p.  802.  3  Joseph.  Bell.  JucL  4,  11. 

4  See  a  plan  with  drawings  of  some  of  the  inscriptions  in  Burton's 
Excerpta  Hier.  pi.  38-41. 

6  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  1,  450. 
6  Rosellini,  Mon.Stor.  4,  139. 


288  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 

Commander  of  the  archers.  Another  priest,  whose  name  has  been 
read  Pischiam,  appears  on  the  same  building,  qualified  with  the 
titles  of  royalty.  These  names  do  not  correspond  with  any  of  those 
in  Manetho1,  and  we  are  left  to  conjecture,  that  during  the  time  that 
elapsed  after  the  expiration  of  the  Rameside  dynasty,  and  before 
the  establishment  of  the  Tanite  in  full  authority  over  Upper  as  well 
as  Lower  Egypt,  the  High-priests  of  Thebes  assumed  the  royal  style 
and  even  military  command.  It  would  be  agreeable  to  the  prac- 
tice of  Manetho,  not  to  include  them  in  his  dynastic  lists,  but  to 
carry  on  his  chronology  by  means  of  the  Tanite  kings,  even  though 
two  or  three  generations  elapsed  before  their  authority  was  acknow- 
ledged in  Thebes.  His  omission  of  the  reign  of  Actisanes,  if,  as 
Diodorus  represents2,  such  an  invasion  from  Ethiopia  really  took 
place,  may  be  explained  on  the  same  principle.  He  did  not?  like 
Sabaco,  found  a  dynasty. 

During  the  long  interval  from  the  Exodus  to  the  reign  of  David, 
there  is  no  mention  in  Egypt  of  Jewish  history.  The  Jews  had 
not  consolidated  themselves  into  a  nation  during  the  prosperous 
times  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasties,  and  if  they  occupied  Pales- 
tine could  offer  no  resistance  to  the  armies  of  Rameses  III.  or  IV. 
An  incident  mentioned  in  the  first  book  of  Kings  (xi.  14)  might 
have  given  us  some  light  into  Egyptian  history,  had  its  indications 
been  more  precise.  When  Joab,  in  the  reign  of  David,  slaughtered 
all  the  males  in  Edom,  Hadad,  one  of  the  royal  family,  made  his 
escape  into  Egypt,  and  being  hospitably  entertained  by  Pharaoh, 
received  in  marriage  the  sister  of  his  queen  Tahpenes.  The  name 
of  this  queen,  however,  has  not  been  found  on  any  monument,  and 
therefore  we  are  still  at  a  loss  respecting  that  of  her  husband. 
During  the  reign  of  Solomon  an  active  commerce  in  horses,  chariots, 

1  Bunsen  (B.  3,  121)  transfers  to  this  dynasty  a  Nefrukera  (Nephercheres) 
and  a  Menephthah  (Amenophthis).  He  also  gives  Pianch,  answering  to 
Psinaches. 

9  2,  60. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


289 


and  linen  yarn  was  carried  on  between  Judaea  and  Egypt.  Solo- 
mon not  only  furnished  his  own  armies  with  horses  and  chariots 
from  this  country,  but  sold  them  again  to  the  Hittites  and  the 
kings  of  Syria1.  The  Pharaoh  whose  daughter  Solomon  married2 
must  have  been  one  of  the  latest  kings  of  the  21st  dynasty :  he 
received  as  her  dowry  the  town  of  Gezer  in  Palestine,  which  the 
king  of  Egypt  had  recently  taken ;  but  the  friendship  which  this 
alliance  established  was  soon  destroyed  under  the  22nd. 

Twenty-second  Dynasty.    Nine  Bubastite  kings. 


(Euseb.  Three.) 

Years. 

Sesonchis,  reigned   21 

Osorthon   15 

Three  others  [omitted  by  Eusebius]  ....  25 

Tacellothis   13 

Three  others  [omitted  by  Eusebius]  ...  42 

116    Eus.  49 


Tn  regard  to  this  dynasty  we  have  no  longer  to  complain  of  the 
silence  of  history  and  the  monuments.  The  names  of  Sesonchis, 
Osorkon  and  Tacellothis  were  early  recognised  by  Champollion3, 
and  the  researches  of  other  Egyptologists  have  recovered  the  shields 
of  all  the  nine  kings  of  whom  this  dynasty  was  composed.  Those 
of  Sesonchis  and  several  of  his  successors  of  this  dynasty  contain  a 
character  which  does  not  occur  before,  the  white  crown  of  Upper 
Egypt,  as  if  to  indicate  that  it  had  been  acquired  by  them.  Bu- 
bastis,  whence  its  name  is  derived,  was  one  of  the  most  ancient 
cities  of  Lower  Egypt4 ;  it  is  mentioned  in  Manetho  in  the  second 
dynasty  of  the  Old  Monarchy,  and  it  stood  near  the  Pelusiac  arm 
of  the  Nile,  about  twenty  miles  below  the  apex  of  the  Delta.  In 

1  1  Kings  x.  28.    Vol.  i.  p.  166.  3  1  Kings  ix.  16. 

8  Lettres  a  M.  le  Due  de  Blacas,  P.  2,  p.  119  *  Vol.  i.  p.  46. 

VOL.  II.  1£ 


290 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


its  modern  name,  Tel  Basta,  we  recognize  that  of  the  goddess 
Pasht,  to  whom  the  principal  temple  was  dedicated — the  Artemis 
of  the  Greeks.  The  Hebrews  called  it  from  the  same  goddess 
Pi-bcseth\  which  the  Septuagint  renders  Boubastos,  and  the  Coptic 
Poubast.  In  its  present  abandoned  and  desolate  condition  it  still 
exhibits  some  of  the  features  which  are  so  graphically  described  by 
Herodotus2.  "  There  is,"  says  he,  "  in  the  city  of  Bubastis  a  tem- 
ple very  deserving  of  description ;  larger  and  more  costly  temples 
exist,  but  none  so  pleasant  to  behold.  Except  the  entrance  it  is 
all  an  island ;  two  canals  come  from  the  Nile,  not  united,  but  dis- 
tinct as  far  as  the  entrance,  and  one  flows  round  it  on  one  side,  and 
one  on  the  other.  The  propylaea  are  sixty  feet  high,  and  adorned 
with  excellent  sculptures  six  cubits  in  height.  The  temple  being 
in  the  middle  of  the  city,  one  who  walks  round  looks  down  upon 
it  from  all  sides ;  for  the  city  has  been  raised  by  accumulations  of 
earth,  and  the  temple  remaining  as  it  originally  was  can  be  looked 
into.  An  outer  wall  runs  round  it  with  sculptured  figures.  Within 
is  a  grove  of  very  large  trees,  planted  round  a  large  temple 
(vrjo'v),  in  which  the  image  of  the  goddess  is.  The  length  and 
breadth  of  the  hieron  is  a  stadium  each  way.  Near  the  entrance 
is  a  road  paved  with  stone  of  the  length  of  three  stadia,  leading 
eastward  through  the  agora,  its  breadth  400  feet.  Trees  reaching 
to  the  skies  are  planted  on  either  side,  and  it  leads  to  the  hieron 
of  Mercury."  The  temples  of  Pasht  and  Thoth  can  still  be  traced  ; 
the  mounds  which  surround  the  ancient  site  are  of  extraordinary 
height,  rising  above  the  area  of  the  temple. 

Sesonchis  (Shishak),  the  first  of  this  dynasty,  is  not  mentioned 
by  Diodorus,  nor  according  to  our  present  text  by  Herodotus.  A 
happy  conjecture  of  Bunsen's  has  restored  his  name  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  136th  section  of  the  Euterpe.  "  After  Myceri- 
nus  the  priests  said  that  Sasychis  became  king  of  Egypt,  and  built 


1  Ezek.  xxx.  17. 


2  2,  138. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


291 


the  eastern  propylaea  of  the  temple  of  Vulcan1."  With  Herodo- 
tus the  time  of  the  building  of  the  pyramids  represents  the  long 
interval  of  decline  and  insignificance  which  intervened  between  the 
illustrious  sovereigns  of  the  18th  and  19th  dynasty,  and  the  revival 
of  the  prosperity  of  Egypt  before  the  invasion  of  the  Ethiopians. 

The  reign  of  Sesonchis  is  the  first  which  we  are  enabled  to  con- 
nect, by  means  of  a  synchronism,  with  our  ordinary  reckoning  of 
the  years  before  Christ,  as  he  is  the  first  Pharaoh  who  is  men- 
tioned by  name  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  The  jealousy  of  Solomon 
having  been  excited  against  Jeroboam2,  in  consequence  of  his 
being  prophetically  pointed  out  by  Ahijah  as  the  future  sovereign 
of  the  ten  tribes,  Jeroboam,  to  save  his  life,  had  escaped  into 
Egypt,  in  the  last  years  of  Solomon's  reign,  and  had  taken  refuge 
with  Sesonchis,  or  as  the  Hebrews  wrote  the  name,  Shashaq.  The 
folly  of  Rehoboam  had  caused  the  erection  of  a  separate  kingdom 
of  the  ten  tribes,  which  had  its  capital  at  Shechem.  Of  this 
Jeroboam  was  made  king,  and  set  up  here  the  worship  of  the 
Egyptian  divinities.  The  country  being  thus  divided  by  a  double 
schism,  political  and  religious,  and  a  powerful  ally  to  Egypt  being 
secured,  Sesonchis  made  an  easy  conquest  of  Jerusalem.  He  came 
up  in  the  fifth  year  after  the  accession  of  Rehoboam  with  an  over- 
whelming force  of  chariots  and  horsemen3,  and  an  auxiliary  body 
composed  of  Libyans,  Ethiopians,  and  the  Troglodyte  tribes  who 
dwelt  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Red  Sea4  and  Ethiopia.  Reho- 

1  Mera  Si  MvKepivov  yevtadai  Aiyvirrov  0aai\ea  e\eyov  ol  TPEES  AEYXIN. 
The  loss  of  the  E  in  such  a  position  wo»ld  easily  occur.  (Comp.  Wessel.  ad 
Diod.  1,  94.)  The  Septuagint  calls  Shishak,  Lovjaiciy.  From  the  mention 
of  his  legislation  he  appears  to  be  the  same  as  the  Sasychis  of  Diodorus 
{u.  s.),  though  his  chronology  is  entirely  confused. 

8  1  Kings  xi  40. 

*  Much  over-estimated  no  doubt  in  2  Chron.  xii.  3  at  1200  chariots  and 
60,000  horsemen. 

4  Such  is  the  probable  meaning  of  the  Sukiim,  mentioned  2  Chron.  xii.  3. 
They  were  skilful  slingers  and  very  useful  as  light  troops.    (Heliod.  2EMu 


292 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


boam  had  not  neglected  preparation  ;  lie  had  built  some  strong 
places  and  fortified  others  in  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  had  put  gar- 
risons in  them  and  victualled  them  against  a  siege1,  and  had  given 
the  command  in  them  to  his  own  sons.  Sesonchis,  however, 
speedily  reduced  all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah  and  Benjamin. 
Jerusalem  appears  to  have  made  no  resistance,  and  thus  escaped 
the  sufferings  of  a  siege  and  a  storm2 ;  but  the  treasures  both  of 
the  Temple  and  the  royal  palace  were  carried  off,  including  the 
golden  shields  which  Solomon  had  made  for  the  use  of  his  guards 
on  solemn  occasions,  and  placed  in  the  house  of  the  forest  of 
Lebanon.  It  was  part  of  the  threatening  of  the  prophet  Shemaiah 
that  Judah  should  become  subject  to  the  king  of  Egypt,  that  they 
might  "  learn  the  difference  between  the  service  of  Jehovah  and 
the  service  of  the  kingdoms  round  about3."  During  the  reign  of 
Sesonchis  they  probably  continued  in  a  state  of  dependence,  which, 
however,  was  not  burdensome,  as  we  are  told  that  "  things  went 
wrell  in  Judah4 "  during  the  later  years  of  Kehoboam. 

A  monument  still  remaining  on  the  outer  wall  of  the  hypostyle 
hall  at  Karnak  confirms  in  a  very  remarkable  manner  this  nar- 
rative from  the  Jewish  Scriptures6.  Sesonchis  (Amunmai  Sheshonk) 
is  there  represented  as  usual  of  gigantic  size,  preparing  to  inflict 
death  on  a  group  of  prisoners,  African  and  Asiatic,  in  the  presence 
of  Amunre,  who  holds  out  a  scimitar  towards  him  with  one  hand, 
and  with  the  other  leads  to  him  a  number  of  foreigners  bound. 
To  each  of  the  five  cords  which  he  holds  in  his  hand  are  attached 

8,  16.)  There  was  a  town  on  this  coast  called  Suche  (Plin.  N.  H.  6,  34), 
supposed  to  be  the  modern  Suakin. 

1  2  Chron.  xi.  5-1 2.  The  Book  of  Kings  makes  no  mention  of  these  pre- 
parations. 

2  2  Chron.  xii.  7.  "  My  wrath  shall  not  be  poured  out  upon  Jerusalem 
by  the  hand  of  Shishak." 

*  2  Chron.  xii.  8.  4  2  Chron.  xii.  12. 

6  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  149 ;  M.  R.  cxlviii. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


293 


a  series  of  shields  surrounded  with  an  embattled  edge  and  sur- 
mounted by  a  head,  round  the  neck  of  which  the  cord  is  passed. 
Each  of  the  five  rows  contains  thirteen  shields,  and  about  half  of 
the  sixty-five  is  legible.  The  first  in  the  first  line  contains  the  lotus, 
the  symbol  of  the  South,  with  the  character  for  region  ;  the  second 
the  papyrus,  the  symbol  of  the  North.  The  account  given  in  the 
Book  of  Chronicles  of  the  various  nations  composing  the  expedi- 
tion of  Sesonchis  shows  that  he  held  Lybia  and  Ethiopia  in  his 
obedience  when  he  invaded  Palestine,  and  renders  it  probable  that 
he  might  have  subdued  them  in  the  previous  part  of  his  reign. 
The  third  shield  is  composed  of  the  character  which  has  been  read 
Penne  or  Pone,  and  is  understood  to  denote  the  western  bank  of 
the  Nile,  along  with  the  bows  which  have  been  already  explained 
as  denoting  Libya.  Among  those  which  remain  legible,  few  have 
been  identified  with  known  geographical  names.  Champollion 
supposed  "  the  land  of  Mahanima  "  (line  2,  9)  to  be  the  Mahanaim1 
of  Scripture;  "the  land  of  Baithoron"  (1.  2,  11)  and  Makto 
(1.  3,  1)  to  be  Bethhoron  and  Megiddo,  both  of  which  Solomon 
fortified2.  Mr.  Osburn  has  since  pointed  out  some  others  which 
bear  a  resemblance  to  known  names  in  Palestine3.  Much  uncer- 
tainty attends  these  identifications,  because  it  is  necessary  to  assume 
certain  phonetic  values  for  characters  which  do  not  occur  else- 
where, or  only  in  positions  equally  ambiguous.  There  is,  however, 
no  uncertainty  respecting  the  most  important  figure  of  the  whole, 
the  third  in  the  third  line,  which  contains  in  well-known  characters 
Joudhmalk,  i.  e.  Joudah-Melek,  "King  of  Judah,"  which  being 
followed  by  the  usual  character  for  land,  the  whole  will  be  read 
"  Land  of  the  King  of  Judah  ;"  these  shields  representing  not  per- 
sons but  places,  symbolized  by  a  figure  of  their  inhabitants. 
Another  figure  on  the  same  wall  represents  the  goddess  Egypt, 
who  holds  in  her  hand  four  cords,  to  each  of  which  seventeen 
1  Gen.  xxxii.  2.  a  1  Kings  ix.  15,  17.    2  Chron.  viii.  6. 

*  Ancient  Egypt,  p.  158. 


294 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


similar  shields  are  attached.  The  greater  part  are  legible,  but 
none  of  them  have  been  identified  with  names  known  in  geo- 
graphy. Since  this  is  the  case  on  a  monument  of  the  middle  of 
the  tenth  century  before  Christ,  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  the  little 
success  which  has  attended  the  attempts  made  to  ascertain  the 
nations  who  are  mentioned  in  the  sculptures  of  sovereigns  of  the 
18th  dynasty,  the  Thothmes,  Menephthah  and  the  Rameses. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  general  designations  of  the  African 
nations,  we  meet  with  none  of  those  with  which  the  earlier  monu- 
ments have  made  us  familiar — Naharaina,  for  example, — or  those 
which  we  have  supposed  to  describe  people  inhabiting  the  countries 
eastward  of  the  Tigris  and  north-westward  of  the  Euphrates.  Not- 
withstanding the  pompous  list  of  names  in  the  record  of  the 
triumphs  of  Sesonchis,  it  is  not  probable  that  his  expedition 
extended  much  beyond  Palestine.  He  could  not  have  advanced 
towards  the  Euphrates  without  encountering  the  power  of  the 
Assyrians. 

There  are  other  memorials  of  Sesonchis1  at  Karnak  and  Silsilis, 
but  being  of  the  religious  class  they  throw  no  light  on  the  history 
of  his  reign.  A  stele  at  the  latter  place  bears  date  in  the  twenty- 
first  year  of  his  reign,  which  must  have  been  the  last.  It  speaks 
of  his  excavations  in  these  quarries  for  the  purpose  of  erecting 
buildings  at  Thebes'.  These  were  carried  on  by  his  successors  in 
the  Bubastite  dynasty9. 

1  A  cuirass  of  leather,  studded  with  brass  scales,  hearing  the  shield  of 
Sheshonk,  is  figured  in  M.  Prisse  d'Avennes'  Monumens  Egyptiens,  Paris, 
1846,  p.  735.  The  name,  however,  will  not  prove  that  it  was  worn  by 
Sesonchis,  as  a  throwstick  is  figured  in  the  same  work,  bearing  the  shield 
of  a  queen. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  165.    Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  359. 

8  It  would  be  premature  to  enter  into  any  speculations  respecting  the 
connexion  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  in  this  age  till  the  Assyrian  monuments 
are  better  understood.  See  Birch,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  voL  iii.  From 
Layard's  account,  it  is  evident  that  the  Egyptian  remains  found  at  Nineveh 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


295 


If  Sesonchis  were  the  Sasychis  of  Diodorus  and  Herodotus,  he 
was  celebrated  as  a  legislator  as  well  as  a  conqueror.  To  him 
Herodotus  attributes  the  law1  which  allowed  a  debtor  to  raise 
money  by  pledging  the  body  of  his  father,  under  the  condition 
that  if  he  did  not  repay  the  money,  neither  he  himself  nor  any  of 
his  family  should  be  interred,  either  in  the  family  sepulchre  or 
elsewhere.  He  was  said  also  to  have  erected  a  pyramid  of  brick, 
and  placed  an  inscription  upon  it,  in  which  he  claimed  for  it  a 
superiority  over  the  pyramids  of  stone.  The  inscription  as  given 
by  Herodotus  has  very  little  resemblance  to  a  genuine  inscription, 
and  was  probably  the  invention  of  his  guides.  But  it  is  not  at  all 
improbable  that  Sesonchis,  following  the  example  of  his  predecessor 
of  the  18th  century,  may  have  employed  his  Asiatic  captives  in 
brick-making.  The  sepulchres  of  the  kings,  after  the  last  of  the 
Rameses,  are  no  longer  found  in  the  Bab-el-Mel ook  ;  and  there  is 
no  reason  why  some  of  the  brick  pyramids  of  Lower  Egypt,  which 
have  been  ascertained  by  the  Prussian  Expedition  to  be  nearly 
double  the  number  previously  known,  may  not  have  been  the  tombs 
of  later  kings. 

If  some  of  them  were  built  after  the  end  of  the  19th  dynasty, 
when  royal  interments  ceased  at  Thebes;  we  can  understand  how 
all  of  them  were  referred  to  that  period.  Sasychis,  according  to 
Herodotus,  built  the  eastern  propylsea  of  the  temple  at  Memphis, 
and  adorned  it  with  sculptures  of  remarkable  size  and  beauty. 
These  have  perished,  and  the  imperfect  remains  at  Karuak  atford 
no  criterion  of  the  state  of  the  arts  in  the  reign  of  Sesonchis.  It 
may  be  better  judged  of  by  the  statues  of  the  lion-headed  god- 
dess Pasht,  which  seem  to  have  been  multiplied  in  the  reign  of 
this  first  Bubastite  king.  One  of  these  is  in  the  Museum  of  Turin! 
another  in  the  Louvre,  and  a  third  in  the  British  Museum2.  In 

do  not  belong  to  the  earliest  age  of  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  as  they  occur 
above  ruined  buildings.    Layard's  Nineveh,  vol.  2,  p.  205. 

1  See  p.  48  of  this  voL  a  Gallery  of  Antiquities,  pi.  viii 


296 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


regard  to  its  execution,  Mr.  Birch  observes  : — "  The  style  is  very- 
different  from  those  executed  under  Amenoph  III.  in  the  same 
collection  ;  the  cheeks  are  more  hollow,  the  limbs  more  lissom 
and  less  strongly  developed  ;  the  whole  of  a  style  of  art  less  pure 
and  grand  than  that  of  the  18th  dynasty." 

A  son  of  Sesonchis  appears  joined  with  him  in  an  act  of  wor- 
ship at  Karnak.  His  name  is  Ushiopf or  Schuopt,  and  like  the 
kings  mentioned,  p.  287,  he  united  with  the  sacerdotal  office  the 
post  of  captain  of  the  archers.  He  did  not,  however,  succeed  his 
father. 

Osorthon  is  the  next  king  in  Manetho's  list.  Where  this  name 
occurs  again  in  the  23rd  dynasty  in  Eusebius,  it  is  Osorcho  in 
Manetho  ;  and  although  there  is  no  various  reading  here,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  king  intended  is  the  Osorkon  of  the 
monuments.  His  shield  follows  that  of  Sheshonk  in  the  sculp- 
tures of  the  court  at  Karnak,  which  has  been  called,  from  having 
been  adorned  by  them,  the  Court  of  the  Bubastite  kings*.  It  is 
also  found  at  Bubastis  on  a  fragment  of  a  cornice,  and  cut  on 
some  blocks  where  originally  the  shield  of  Rameses-Sesostris  stood5. 
Among  the  Egyptian  antiquities  of  the  Louvre,  there  is  a  magni- 
ficent vase  of  alabaster,  which  contains  on  one  side  a  dedication 
by  Osorchon  to  Amunre.  It  was  subsequently  employed  to  receive 
the  remains  of  a  member  of  the  Claudian  family  at  Rome,  and 
bears  an  inscription  to  this  purpose  on  its  opposite  side4. 

The  Book  of  Kings  gives  no  account  of  the  relations  between 
Egypt  and  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  from  the  invasion 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  163. 

9  See  vol.  i.  p.  148.  It  is  marked  B.  4.  8,  on  Sir  G.  Wilkinson's  Map  of 
Thebes.    Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  85. 

3  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  <fe  Thebes,  1,  429.  He  has  not  given  any  facsimile 
of  these  shields,  and  it  is  possible  that  they  may  not  all  refer  to  the  same 
Osorkon. 

4  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  360. 


THE  TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY. 


297 


of  Shishak  till  the  reign  of  Hoshea,  who  made  an  alliance  with 
Seva,  or  So,  king  of  Egypt  (725  B.C.),  in  order  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  Salmaneser  and  the  Assyrians1.  The  Second  Book  of 
Chronicles,  however,  records  an  invasion  of  Judah  by  Zerach, 
the  Ethiopian,  in  the  reign  of  Asa,  the  grandson  of  Rehoboam. 
In  the  name  of  Zerach  critics  have  recognized  that  of  Osorchon,  the 
successor  of  Sesonchis.  A  war  between  the  two  countries  was  an 
exceedingly  probable  event.  Abijah,  the  son  of  Rehoboam,  had 
gained  a  great  victory  over  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  Asa  had 
raised  an  army,  according  to  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  of  580,000 
men,  and  built  several  fortified  places  in  Judah.  If  Egypt  had 
retained  a  claim  of  superiority  and  tribute  over  Judah  from  the 
time  of  Sheshonk's  invasion,  these  indications  of  a  growing  mili- 
tary power  would  not  be  overlooked  by  her.  Zerach  (941  B.C., 
Usher)  came  up  with  a  very  numerous  army2  as  far  as  Mareshah 
in  the  plain  of  Judah,  but  was  defeated  by  Asa  and  pursued  to 
Gerar  on  the  southern  boundary  of  Palestine.  The  only  difficulty 
which  attends  the  narrative  is,  that  Zerach  is  called  an  Ethiopian 
(Cushite).  No  king  of  the  Bubastite  dynasty  could  have  been  so 
designated  ;  the  works  of  Osorchon  and  his  successors  at  Thebes 
show  that  Upper  Egypt  was  in  their  possession  ;  and  therefore  if 
we  could  suppose  a  motive  for  an  invasion  of  Judaea  by  a  sovereign 
of  Ethiopia,  it  is  not  credible  that  he  should  have  marched  through 
Egypt  for  its  accomplishment.  On  the  other  hand,  chronology  forbids 
the  supposition  that  Zerach  could  be  one  of  the  25th  or  Ethiopian 
dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings,  the  earliest  of  whom  lived  200  years 
later  than  Asa.  The  reality  of  the  invasion  and  defeat  cannot  be 
called  in  question  ;  the  name  Zerach  is  not  very  remote  from  Osor- 
chon, when  reduced  to  its  consonants,  and  the  times  would  very 
exactly  correspond.  Rehoboam  reigned  twelve  years  after  the 
1  2  Kings  xvii.  4. 

3  Estimated  in  2  Chron.  xiv.  9,  at  a  million  of  men  and  three  hundred 
chariots. 

13* 


298 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


invasion  of  Sesonchis ;  Abijah,  his  son,  three  years  ;  the  victory 
of  Asa  took  place  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  reign1.  Thus  thirty 
years  elapsed  between  the  invasions  by  Sheshonk  and  by  Zerach, 
and  as  Sesonchis  reigned  twenty-two  years  and  Osorchon  fifteen, 
there  is  sufficient  room  for  both  events.  The  name  of  Ethiopian 
given  to  Zerach  in  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  which  was  not  written, 
at  least  in  its  present  form,  till  after  the  Captivity,  may  be  explained 
by  the  circumstance  that  his  army,  like  that  of  Sheshonk,  was 
composed  chiefly  of  Libyan  and  Ethiopian  troops.2 

The  names  of  the  three  successors  of  Osorkon  I.  are  not  given 
by  Manetho  ;  Lepsius  makes  his  immediate  successor  to  have  been 
Amunmai  Pehor,  who  was  probably  his  son.  Another  son,  whose 
name  was  Sheshonk,  filled  the  office  of  high-priest,  and  is  men- 
tioned in  a  funeral  papyrus  which  appears  to  have  accompanied  the 
mummy  of  another  high-priest  of  the  name  of  Osorkon,  the  son  of 
this  Sheshonk,  and  consequently  grandson  of  Osorkon  I.  Neither 
of  these  appear  to  have  ascended  the  throne.  Pehor  was  succeeded 
by  Osorkon  II.,  and  he  by  Sheshonk  II.  His  shield  is  distin- 
guished from  that  of  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  by  the  addition 
of  the  name  of  the  goddess  of  Bubastis,  Pasht.  The  name  of  Take- 
lothis  was  recovered  by  Champollion  from  a  fragment3  of  a  piece  of 
sycamore-wood,  the  remainder  of  which  is*in  the  Vatican,  on  which 
a  priest  clad  in  the  leopard's  skin  is  represented,  performing  an  act 
of  adoration  to  Phre,  in  behalf  of  Takelothis'  son.  It  has  since 
been  found  on  the  wall  at  Karnak,  and  with  the  date  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  year  of  his  reign.  The  same  inscription  mentions  the  name 
of  his  queen  Keromama,  and  of  his  son  and  probably  successor 
Osorchon,  who  is  called  high-priest  and  captain  of  the  archers4. 


1  2  Chron.  xv.  10.  3  2  Chron.  xyi.  8. 

*  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  361.  Champollion  le  Jeune,  Lettre  a 
M.  le  Due  de  Blacas,  2,  123. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  170. 


THE  TWENTY-THIRD  DYNASTY. 


299 


Of  Osorkon  III.,  Sheshonk  III.,  and  Takelothis  II.1,  with  whom, 
the  dynasty  became  extinct,  no  historical  fact  is  recorded. 

The  relations  of  Egypt  and  Judaea  appear  not  to  have  been 
friendly,  under  this  and  the  succeeding  dynasty,  even  when  there 
was  not  actual  war  between  them.  The  prophet  Joel2  (iii.  19) 
threatens  Egypt,  as  well  as  Edom,  with  desolation  for  its  violence 
against  the  children  of  Judah,  which  may  have  consisted  in  the 
forcible  seizure  of  the  inhabitants  for  slaves.  Eusebius  in  his  Canon 
remarks,  under  the  23rd  dynasty,  that  after  the  Phoenicians  the 
Egyptians  became  masters  of  the  seas,  and  they  probably  exercised 
their  dominion  piratically,  like  their  predecessors. 


Twenty-third  Dynasty.    Four  Tanite  kings. 

Years. 

Petubatis  [Petubastis,  Euseb.],  reigned    ...    40    25  (Euseb.) 

In  his  reign  was  the  first  Olympiad. 
Osorcho  [Osorthon,  Euseb.]  8 

"Whom  the  Egyptians  call  Hercules3. 

PsAMMUS  10 

Zet  [omitted  by  Euseb.]  31 

89  44 

Of  this  whole  dynasty,  till  lately,  no  name  had  been  read  on  the 
monuments,  as  no  fact  is  recorded  concerning  them.  Lepsius  has 
found  a  shield  with  the  name  of  Petsepasht,  the  Egyptian  word 
whence  the  Petubastis  of  Eusebius  was  derived.    The  occurrence 

1  Bunsen,  ^Egyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  135. 

'  His  age  is  uncertain,  but  from  the  absence  of  all  mention  of  Assyria, 
he  is  thought  to  have  lived  before  that  power  threatened  the  independence 
of  Palestine. 

s  This  remark,  from  its  turn  of  expression,  is  evidently  not  that  of  Mane- 
tho.  It  does  not  appear  what  ground  there  was  for  this  identification,  as 
Chon  is  said  to  have  been  the  Egyptian  name  for  Hercules.  Etym.  M.  s.  v. 
X<3»>.  Vol.  i.  p.  322. 


300 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  the  name  of  the  great  goddess  of  Bubastis  in  that  of  the  founder 
of  the  dynasty,  leads  us  to  conclude  that  this  family,  though  called 
of  Tanis,  was  genealogically  connected  with  the  preceding.  This 
is  confirmed  by  the  name  of  the  second  king  Osorchon,  which  was 
borne  by  so  many  of  the  22nd  dynasty.  A  shield  at  Karnak,  con- 
taining the  name  Psemaut,  has  generally  been  attributed  to 
Psemmuthis  of  the  29th  dynasty,  which  arose  during  an  interval 
of  successful  revolt  from  Persia1,  a  prince  who  reigned  only  during 
a  part  of  the  year.  Lepsius  has  given  it  to  Psammus,  the  third  of 
this  dynasty.  There  remains  then  only  Zet2,  whose  name  has  not 
yet  been  found. 

The  fifth  year  of  Rehoboam,  in  which  Sheshonk  invaded  Judaea, 
is  generally  placed  974  b.  c.  Between  this  date  and  1322  b.  c. 
we  must  place  the  reigns  of  all  the  kings  from  Menephthah  (p.  250) 
to  Sheshonk.  These  three  centuries  and  a  half  suffice  for  the 
events  of  the  history,  but  their  distribution  into  reigns  would  be 
quite  hypothetical.  The  chronological  notice,  that  the  first  Olym- 
piad fell  in  the  reign  of  Petubastis,  seems  to  have  been  transferred 
hither  by  mistake.  It  is  not  found  in  Eusebius,  and  cannot  have 
proceeded  from  Africanus,  who  elsewhere  places  the  first  Olympiad 
in  the  first  year  of  Ahaz3.    This  is  too  late,  as  the  other  is  too  early. 

We  obtain  no  assistance  either  from  Herodotus  or  Diodorus,  in 
recovering  the  history  of  this  dynasty.  Herodotus  knows  the  name 
of  no  king  of  Egypt,  between  Sasychis  and  Anysis,  who  was  reign- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  Ethiopian  invasion.  Diodorus  passes  at  once 
from  the  builders  of  the  pyramids  to  Bocchoris,  and  he  makes  many 
years  to  have  intervened  between  him  and  Sabaco,  contrary  to  the 

1  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  207 ;  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  2,  256. 

a  Lepsius,  Einl.  1,  256,  makes  him  to  be  the  Sethos  of  Herodotus. 

*  Fynes  Clinton,  Fasti,  1,  150,  who  observes  that  the  year  b.  c.  776,  the 
admitted  aera  of  the  Olympiads,  fell  in  the  33rd  year  of  Uzziah.  His  reign 
lasted  51  years ;  that  of  his  son  and  successor  Jotham,  the  father  of 
Ahnz,  16. 


THE  TWENTY-FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


301 


lists,  according  to  which  Bocchoris  was  taken  captive  and  burnt 
alive  by  the  Ethiopian  king.  There  are  not  even  any  private 
monuments  which  throw  light  on  the  condition  of  Egypt  during 
this  period.  That  it  was  one  of  decline  and  decay  we  may  infer 
from  the  ascendency  which  the  Ethiopians  acquired  in  the  next 
dynasty,  and  apparently  with  little  struggle  on  the  part  of  the 
Egyptians. 

Twenty-fourth  Dynasty. 

Years. 

Bocchoris  of  Sais  reigned  6     Euseb.  44 

In  his  reign  a  lamb  spoke1. 

The  Dynasty  of  Sais,  founded  by  Bocchoris,  may  be  said  to  have 
been  in  fact  prolonged  to  the  time  of  the  Persian  conquest,  the 
Ethiopian  dynasty  being  intrusive  and  the  Dodecarchia  only  tem- 
porary. Sais  stood  near  the  Canopic  branch  of  the  Nile,  to  which, 
as  the  nearest  and  the  most  accessible,  the  traffic  of  the  Greeks 
was  from  the  first  attracted.  Naucratis,  the  only  harbor  in  Egypt 
to  which  strangers  were  admitted,  unless  under  the  plea  of  stress 
of  weather2,  was  on  the  Canopic  branch  and  nearer  to  the  sea 
than  Sais.  It  is  not  certain  when  the  Greeks  were  first  allowed 
to  settle  in  Naucratis.  Eusebius  in  his  Canon  says3,  that  the 
Milesians,  in  the  reign  of  Bocchoris,  became  powerful  at  sea  and 
built  the  city  of  Naucratis.    This  is  not  very  probable,  if  literally 

%1  Probably  a  portent  of  the  approaching  calamities  of  Bocchoris  and  his 
kingdom.  So  when  Psammenitus  was  about  to  be  dethroned,  rain  fell  at 
Thebes  (Her.  3,  10).  According  to  ^Elian,  N.  H.  12,  3,  this  lamb,  besides 
speaking  with  a  human  voice,  had  two  heads,  eight  feet,  <fec. 

8  This  is  stated  by  Herodotus  (2,  179)  as  if  true  of  all  strangers.  Strabo 
intimates  that  it  was  chiefly  intended  against  the  Greeks  from  their  piratical 
habits,  1*7,  792.    The  duty  of  watching  the  coast  and  keeping  off  strangers 
was  committed  to  the  herdsmen,  a  rude  and  inhospitable  face. 
*  Under  Olymp.  vi. 


302 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


taken,  and  is  contradicted  by  Herodotus1,  who  says  the  Ionians 
and  Carians  under  Psammitichus  were  the  first  foreigners  who 
were  allowed  to  settle  in  Egypt.  Considering  the  wide-spread 
colonization  of  the  Milesians  in  the  eighth  century  before  Christ2, 
there  is  however  nothing  improbable  in  their  having  established 
more  regular  commercial  relations  with  Egypt  than  Greece  had 
possessed  before. 

Gradually  greater  privileges  seem  to  have  been  allowed  them^ 
and  hence  the  variety  of  accounts  respecting  the  time  of  their 
establishment,  which  Strabo  against  all  probability  brings  down  as 
low  as  the  revolt  of  Inaros3,  462  B.C.  The  Portuguese  at  Macao 
at  first  only  obtained  permission  to  erect  sheds  for  their  goods,  but 
by  degrees  were  allowed  to  build  houses,  establish  a  government 
of  their  own  and  erect  a  fort.  The  story  of  the  landing  of  the 
Ionian  and  Carian  mercenaries  in  Egypt  at  the  time  of  the  Dode- 
carchia  indicates  that  armed  Greeks  were  a  novel  sight  to  the 
Egyptians4 ;  but  of  course  only  merchant  ships  and  men  in  peace- 
ful attire  would  be  admitted  to  Naucratis.  The  English,  when 
they  first  established  themselves  at  Formosa,  agreed  to  deliver  up 
all  their  guns  and  ammunition  while  in  port6.  We  do  not,  how- 
ever, derive  much  increase  of  our  knowledge  respecting  Egypt 
from  the  increased  resort  of  the  Greeks  before  the  time  of  Psam- 
mitichus. They  have  not  even  preserved  such  tales  of  wonder  as 
we  find  in  the  Homeric  legends.  The  Epic  Muse  was  silent ;  the 
Cyclic,  if  she  deserves  the  name  of  Muse,  was  occupied  in  combin- 
ing and  harmonizing  the  traditions  of  the  Mythic  age.  Prose 
history,  scientific  geography  and  astronomy  had  their  birth-place 
at  Miletus ;  but  in  a  later  century. 

1  2,  154.  a  Rambach  de  Mileto,  p.  19,  62.    Clinton,  F.  H.  1,  115. 

3  IV,  p.  801.  According  to  him  they  first  fortified  a  place  at  the  Bolbitine 
mouth,  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus ;  and  afterwards  removed  in  the  time 
of  Inaros  to  the  Saitic  nome,  and  fortified  Naucratis. 

4  Her.  2,  152.  5  Davis,  The  Chinese,  vol.  1,  p.  35. 


THE  TWENTY- FOURTH  DYNASTY. 


303 


The  name  of  Bocchoris,  which  was  probably  in  Egyptian  Pekor, 
does  not  appear  on  any  monument  which  can  be  conclusively 
referred  to  his  reign1.  His  father's  name,  according  to  Diodorus, 
was  Tnephachthus,  or  Gnephachthus,  in  which  we  recognise  that 
of  the  goddess  Pasht2.  Diodorus  calls  his  father  king,  and  relates 
an  anecdote  of  him  which  has  been  mentioned  under  the  reign  of 
Menes.  Bocchoris  himself  is  said  by  Diodorus  to  have  been  mean 
and  feeble  in  body,  but  to  have  surpassed  his  predecessors  in 
ingenuity  and  wisdom.  He  attributes  specially  to  him  the  laws 
which  regulated  commercial  contracts  and  the  prerogatives  and 
duties  of  the  king3.  This  reputation  seems  to  imply  that  at  his 
accession  he  found  public  and  private  law  in  a  state  of  decay,  and 
labored  to  renew  them.  He  is  celebrated  also  for  the  wisdom  of 
his  judicial  decisions,  many  of  which  were  handed  down  by  fame 
even  to  very  late  times.  A  very  different  account  of  his  character 
and  administration  is  given  by  ^Elian4,  who  says  he  had  obtained 
a  false  reputation  for  the  justice  of  his  decisions.  To  grieve  the 
Egyptians,  he  set  a  wild  bull  to  attack  their  sacred  Mnevis.  As 
the  assailant  was  rushing  furiously  on,  he  stumbled,  and  entangling 
his  horn  in  the  tree  persea,  Mnevis  gave  him  a  mortal  wound  in 
the  flank.  Plutarch5,  while  he  acknowledges  the  just  decisions  of 
Bocchoris,  calls  him  a  man  of  stern  character.  Possibly  the 
avarice  which  Diodorus  attributes  to  him  may  have  been  only  the 
unfavorable  aspect  of  a  rigid  economy,  rendered  necessary  by  dila- 
pidated finances.    Economy,  especially  if  accompanied  by  strict- 

1  The  Amunse  Pehor,  whom  the  earlier  Egyptologists  identified  with 
Bocchoris,  has  been  removed  by  Lepsius  to  the  21st  dynasty.  See  before, 
p.  287.    Bunsen.  3,  135. 

2  Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  354  B.  gives  the  name  Technatis ;  Athenseus,  x.  p.  418, 

3  Tovtov  ovv  Stard^ai  ra  nepl  rovs  0aui\tTs  navTa,  fat  ra  irtpii  twv  cvfi^oXaiuiv 
l^aKptPaicrai.     (Diod.  ibid.) 

4  Nat.  Anim.  11,  11.  5  Tlep\  Avcwmas,  p.  529,  E. 


304 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


ness  in  the  levying  of  taxes,  is  seldom  a  popular  virtue  in  rulers. 
The  celebrity  which  he  enjoyed  is  hardly  reconcilable  with  the 
short  reign  of  six  years  which  the  lists  attribute  to  him.  Eusebius 
makes  his  reign  to  have  lasted  forty-four  years ;  but  this  number 
is  suspicious,  as  being  the  same  which  this  author  attributes  both 
to  the  23rd  dynasty  which  precedes  and  the  25th  which  follows. 
The  cruel  death  inflicted  by  Sabaco  on  Bocchoris,  which  appears 
inconsistent  with  the  humanity  ascribed  to  the  Ethiopian  conqueror, 
may  be  explained,  if  we  suppose  that  Bocchoris  was  at  first  left  on 
the  throne  in  the  capacity  of  a  tributary,  but  revolting,  wras  taken 
prisoner  by  Sabaco  and  then  put  to  death  by  burning.  Herodotus 
calls  the  king  who  \vas  reigning  at  the  time  of  the  Ethiopian 
invasion,  Anysis,  and  a  native  of  the  city  of  the  same  name,  pro- 
bably the  Hanes  of  the  prophet  Isaiah1,  to  which,  as  well  as  Tanis, 
the  ambassadors  of  Israel  came,  seeking  an  alliance  with  the  king 
of  Egypt,  when  they  were  alarmed  by  the  prospect  of  an  Assyrian 
invasion,  in  the  reign  of  Sennacherib.  According  to  Herodotus, 
Anysis  was  not  put  to  death,,  but  took  refuge  in  the  marshes  of 
the  Delta.  He  had  made  a  spot  of  solid  ground  of  a  little  more 
than  a  mile  square,  by  laying  down  ashes  amidst  the  muddy  soil. 
These  ashes  were  supplied  by  the  friends,  who,  unknown  to  the 
Ethiopians,  brought  him  provisions.  On  the  retirement  of  the 
Ethiopians  he  issued  from  his  retreat,  and  resumed  his  power,  after 
an  interval  of  fifty  years.  These  differences  are  irreconcilable,  but 
on  the  whole  it  appears  probable  that  a  considerably  longer  date 
is  to  be  allowed  to  the  reign  of  the  immediate  predecessor  of 
Sabaco  than  six  years. 


1  xxx.  4.    See  p.  286,  287  of  this  vol. 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


305 


Twenty-fifth  Dynasty,  of  three  Ethiopian  kings. 

Yeara 

1.  Sabaco,  reigned  8    Eusebius  12 

He  took  Bocchoris  prisoner  and  burnt  him 
alive. 

2.  Sebichos  (Sevechos)  his  son  14   Eusebius  12 

3.  Tabktjs  (Tarakos,  Eus.)  18    Eusebius  20 

40  44 

The  word  Ethiopian  has  so  wide  a  meaning,  being  applied  to 
the  Arab  of  Yemen,  to  the  Abessinian,  the  native  of  Sennaar,  Dar- 
fur  and  Kordofan,  as  well  as  of  Nubia  and  Dongola,  that  it  is 
necessary  to  fix  its  sense  more  precisely,  in  order  to  conceive 
rightly  of  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ.  The  seat  of  the  monarchy 
of  Sabaco  and  his  successors  was  Napata,  whose  site  and  remains 
have  been  already  described1.  It  extended  as  far  north  as  to  the 
island  of  Argo  ;  the  space  between  that  and  the  Cataracts  of  Syene 
must  be  regarded  as  a  debateable  land,  which  was  held  by  Egypt 
or  Ethiopia  according  to  their  relative  strength.  Under  the  18th 
dynasty  we  have  seen  that  the  valley  of  the  Nile  was  completely 
possessed  by  Egypt,  even  to  the  south  of  the  Second  Cataract. 
During  the  feebleness  of  the  last  years  of  the  23rd  and  the  24th, 
it  is  probable  that  the  Ethiopians  had  advanced  their  arms  to  the 
very  frontiers  of  Egypt,  or  even  occupied  Thebes.  How  far  to  the 
south  of  Napata  the  Ethiopian  monarchy  extended  at  this  time  we 
do  not  know.  It  has  been  commonly  supposed  that  the  island  of 
Meroe  was  its  original  seat :  Herodotus  calls  the  city  of  Meroe 
"  the  metropolis  of  the  other  Ethiopians,"  meaning  probably  those 
of  the  island.    No  monuments  of  equal  antiquity  with  those  of 

1  VoL  i  p.  13. 


306 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Napata  have  been  found  in  any  part  of  the  island1.  Diodorus8 
says  that  the  city  of  Meroe  was  founded  by  Cambyses  and  named 
after  his  mother ;  but  Cambyses  never  reached  so  far.  In  the 
Persian  times  the  valley  of  the  Nile  above  the  First  Cataract  was 
held  by  the  Ethiopians,  but  as  tributaries ;  the  Persian  frontier 
garrison  was  established  in  Elephantine.  The  Ptolemies  before 
Euergetes  left  Ethiopia  in  possession  of  her  independence  ;  we  find 
the  names  of  Erkamen  (Ergamenes)  and  Atharaman  on  the  monu- 
ments of  Lower  Nubia3.  Under  the  Romans,  in  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  Ethiopia  appears  again  as  a  powerful  monarchy,  and 
Petronius  marched  to  Napata  and  compelled  Candace  to  submit 
herself  to  the  emperor. 

The  Ethiopians  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ  were  little 
inferior  in  civilization  to  the  Egyptians  themselves.  They  had  a 
system  of  hieroglyphical  writing  identical  with  the  Egyptian, 
though  applied  to  a  different  language,  and  therefore  not  yet 
deciphered4.  The  power  of  the  priesthood  was  greater  than  even 
in  Egypt,  and  completely  ascendant  over  the  monarchy.  Both  the 
historical  and  the  prophetic  books  of  the  Jews  afford  evidence  of 
their  military  power.  They  bear  a  part  in  the  invasions  of  Pales- 
tine ;  they  are  joined  by  Isaiah  with  the  Egyptians  when  he 
endeavors  to  dissuade  his  countrymen  from  relying  on  their  aid  to 
resist  Assyria.  In  the  87th  Psalm  (v.  4)  Ethiopia  is  mentioned 
along  with  Egypt,  Babylon,  Tyre  and  Philistia,  as  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  nations5.    Throughout  the  prophetic  writings  the  Ethio- 

1  See  vol.  i.  p.  8.  2  1,  33.  3  Vol.  i.  p.  22,  24. 

4  It  is  said  that  Lepsius  has  ascertained  the  language  of  the  Ethiopian 
inscriptions.  Charemon,  who  wrote  on  hieroglyphics  about  the  Christian 
a?ra,  called  them  Ethiopic  letters.  His  explanations  accord  in  general  with 
modern  discovery.  See  Birch's  Remarks  on  the  curious  fragment  of  Chse- 
remon,  preserved  by  Tzetzes,  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  3,  384. 

6  The  meaning  of  the  passage  evidently  is,  that  though  it  was  an  honor 
to  be  a  native  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  or  Ethiopia,  it  was  a  greater  honor  to  be 
a  native  of  Zion. 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


307 


pians  are  very  generally  conjoined  with  Egypt,  so  as  to  show  that 
the  union  between  them,  produced  sometimes  by  the  ascendency 
of  one  country,  sometimes  of  the  other,  was  so  close,  that  their 
foreign  policy  was  usually  the  same1.  We  are  not  therefore  to 
consider  the  subjugation  of  Egypt  by  the  Ethiopians  as  if  they  had 
fallen  under  the  dominion  of  a  horde  of  Arabs  or  Scythians.  The 
blameless  Ethiopians2  is  the  earliest  epithet  which  the  Greeks 
applied  to  them  ;  Diodorus3  celebrates  the  moderation  of  Actisanes, 
and  the  account  which  Herodotus4  gives  of  Sabaco's  retirement 
from  Egypt  proves  his  humanity  and  reverence  for  the  gods.  The 
dynasty  was  changed  ;  the  head  of  it  either  put  to  death  or  driven 
into  the  marshes  of  Lower  Egypt ;  but  the  order  of  government 
appears  to  have  suffered  little  change.  No  difference  of  religion 
or  manners  embittered  the  animosity  of  the  two  nations ;  they  had 
been  connected  by  royal  intermarriages  ;  Ammon  and  Osiris  were 
equally  honored  at  Thebes  and  Me  roe5;  and  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Upper  Egypt,  the  Ethiopians  would  seem  hardly  so  foreign  as  the 
people  of  Sais. 

The  Egyptian  history  of  Herodotus,  if  we  understand  by  that 
word  a  series  of  facts  connected  in  chronological  order,  really 
begins  with  the  invasion  of  Sabaco.  He  himself  remarks,  that  the 
settlement  of  the  Ionians  and  Carians  in  Egypt,  in  the  time  of 
Psammitichus,  gave  the  Greeks  an  accurate  knowledge  of  all  its 
subsequent  history,  and  the  effect  would  naturally  extend  upw  ards 
also.  Herodotus  indeed  considers  the  same  king  Sabaco  as  reign- 
ing through  the  whole  fifty  years  that  the  Egyptians  kept  posses- 
sion of  Egypt ;  but  the  similarity  of  two  of  the  names  may  partly 
account  for  this  error,  which  at  all  events  was  not  his,  since  the 
relation  of  the  departure  of  Sabaco  is  evidently  formed  on  the 
assumption  of  the  identity  of  the  invader  with  the  sovereign  who 
withdrew  from  the  country. 

1  Is.  xx.  5.    Xahum  iii.  9.    Ezek.  xxx.  4. 

1  H  a',  423.  »  2,  60.  4  2,  139.  6  Her.  2,  29. 


308 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  name  of  Sabaco,  written  Shabek,  is  found  at  Luxor,  with 
the  usual  titles  of  Egyptian  sovereignty,  on  the  internal  wall  of  the 
propyla  raised  by  Rameses-Sesostris1.  The  sculptures  having  been 
injured,  or  decayed  with  time,  Sabaco  renewed  them  and  substi- 
tuted his  own  name  for  that  of  Rameses  ;  they  indicate  that  Egyp- 
tian art  still  existed  in  considerable  vigor.  A  statuette  of  the 
same  king,  of  the  stone  called  plasme  cfemeraude,  is  preserved  in 
the  Villa  Albani  at  Rome,  and  his  name  occurs  also  as  a  date  on 
some  amulets  and  small  figures  from  the  collection  of  Anastasy, 
now  in  the  Louvre.  The  shield  of  Sabaco  has  also  been  found 
over  a  gate  of  the  palace  of  Karnak,  and  on  some  fragments  one 
of  which  bears  the  date  of  his  twelfth  year.  This,  according  to 
Eusebius,  was  the  last  of  his  reign  ;  according  to  the  text  of  Mane- 
tho,  with  which  the  summation  of  the  years  of  the  dynasty  agrees, 
he  reigned  only  eight  years.  The  name  of  the  succeeding  king, 
however,  Sebechus  or  Sevechus,  is  evidently  the  same  as  Sabaco, 
which  Manetho  probably  adopted  as  one  already  established  in 
history ;  and  the  shield  at  Karnak  which  has  been  attributed 
to  the  first  Ethiopic  king  may  with  equal  propriety  be  given 
to  the  second,  as  their  phonetic  names  are  written  in  the  same 
characters2,  and  thus  the  monuments  and  the  lists  will  be  brought 
into  accordance,  the  date  of  the  twelfth  year  being  allotted  to 
Sevechus. 

Diodorus  bestows  the  highest  praise  on  Sabaco,  as  surpassing  in 
piety  and  clemency  all  his  predecessors3.    Herodotus  agrees  in 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  107  ;  4,  175,  177.  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Uni- 
vers,  p.  363.  The  name  also  occurs  (Rosellini,  2,  108)  on  monuments  of 
private  persons,  who  call  themselves  natives  of  Cush. 

2  See  Bunsen,  Plates  of  25th  Dynasty,  Xos.  1  &  2. 

8  His  account  of  Actisanes  has  the  air  of  being  a  confused  tradition  of 
this  Ethiopian  conquest ;  the  only  circumstance  which  he  definitely  men- 
tions concerning  his  reign  is,  that  he  did  not  put  criminals  to  death,  but 
banished  them  to  Rhinocolura  on  the  confines  of  Syria  (1,  60). 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


309 


representing  him  as  having  abolished  the  punishment  of  death,  and 
substituted  for  it  compulsory  labor  on  public  works1.  They  were 
such  as  in  the  more  glorious  days  of  the  monarchy  had  been  per- 
formed by  foreign  prisoners.  The  increase  in  the  rise  of  the  Nile 
since  the  reign  of  Sesostris,  had  made  it  necessary  to  add  to  the 
height  of  the  embankments  which  prevented  the  towns  of  Lower 
Egypt  from  being  laid  under  water  at  the  time  of  the  inundation. 
He  also  employed  culprits  in  excavating  canals.  The  circum- 
stances of  his  retirement  from  Egypt,  as  related  by  both  historians, 
indicate  that  the  priests  bore  subjection  to  a  foreign  power  impa- 
tiently and  caballed  for  its  overthrow.  He  dreamt  that  a  figurp 
standing  over  him  in  his  sleep,  counselled  him  to  collect  all  the 
priests  in  Egypt  together  and  cut  them  to  pieces2.  Sabaco  per- 
ceived in  this  a  design  on  the  part  of  the  gods  to  entice  him  to  the 
commission  of  an  act  of  impiety  which  should  bring  on  his  ruin. 
He  had  been  told  by  the  oracles  of  Ethiopia  that  he  should  reign 
over  Egypt  fifty  years,  and  being  disturbed  by  the  dream  he  deter- 
mined voluntarily  to  withdraw  into  Ethiopia.  As  related  of  the 
Ethiopian  king  who  had  invaded  Egypt  this  cannot  be  true ;  but 
the  subsequent  elevation  of  a  priest  of  Memphis  to  supreme  power 
makes  it  probable  that  the  sacerdotal  order  of  that  city,  controlled 
in  their  ascendency,  had  placed  the  Ethiopian  sovereigns  in  the 
dilemma  of  yielding  to  them  or  undertaking  their  extermination. 
No  memorials  of  any  of  this  dynasty  except  Tirhakah  have  been 
found  in  Lower  Egypt,  though  it  is  evident  from  the  account  of 
the  raising  of  the  mounds  that  it  was  subject  to  Sabaco. 

It  is  related  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  (xvii.  4),  that  Hoshea, 

1  Herod.  2,  137. 

9  Mfo-ovs  Siaraficeiv,  Her.  2,  139.  Diodorus  adds,  Sta  [ttaajp  avrdv  cd\Bri  ftcra 
rrjs  Bcoairua,  (1,  C5),  a  circumstance  which  seems  to  have  been  added  from 
the  story  of  Xerxes  (Her.  7,  40),  who  commanded  the  eldest  son  of  Pythius, 
whom  he  had  endeavored  to  beg  off  from  military  service,  to  be  cut  in  two 
pieces,  which  were  fixed  on  either  side  of  the  line  of  march. 


310 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


king  of  Israel,  who  had  become  tributary  to  Shalmaneser,  king  of 
Assyria,  had  entered  into  a  secret  alliance  with  Seva,  the  king  of 
Egypt,  the  Sevechus  of  Manetho1,  and  relying  on  his  assistance, 
"  had  brought  no  present  to  the  king  of  Assyria,  as  he  had  done 
year  by  year ;"  for  which  the  king  of  Assyria  put  him  in  prison, 
and  after  a  three  years'  siege  took  Samaria  and  carried  the  people 
captive  into  Assyria  and  Media.  This,  according  to  the  Jewish 
Chronology,  took  place  in  the  year  722  B.C.,  the  ninth  of  Hoshea's 
reign.  The  kings  of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty  would  naturally  enter 
into  the  policy  of  the  native  kings  of  Egypt,  which  evidently  was 
to  uphold  the  power  of  Israel  and  Judah,  the  only  barrier  between 
themselves  and  the  warlike  and  aggressive  empire  of  the  Assyrians. 
It  is  probable  that  the  rapid  movements  of  Shalmaneser,  who  had 
an  ally  in  the  kiug  of  Judah,  anticipated  the  aid  which  Sevechus 
had  engaged  to  furnish  to  Hoshea ;  but  the  very  brief  narrative 
of  the  Book  of  Kings  gives  us  no  details.  Many  of  the  Israelites 
avoided  the  captivity  which  threatened  them,  by  taking  refuge  in 
the  friendly  territory  of  Egypt,  while  others  even  penetrated  into 
Ethiopia,  and  from  this  time  forward  there  seems  always  to  have 
been  a  considerable  body  of  Jews  in  the  eastern  side  of  Egypt, 
speaking  their  own  language,  practising  their  own  religious  rites, 
and  exciting  the  bigotry  of  the  native  Egyptians2.  The  prophet 
Isaiah3  anticipates  the  time  when  the  remnant  of  the  people  should 
be  recalled  "  from  Assyria,  and  from  Egypt,  and  from  Pathros  (the 
Thebaid),  and  from  Cush,"  and  in  glowing  language  describes 
Jehovah  as  drying  up  the  gulf  of  the  Red  Sea,  smiting  the  seven 
channels  of  the  Nile,  and  making  a  highway  through  the  Desert, 
that  they  might  return  without  danger  or  delay. 

Tirhakah,  the  Tarcus  or  Taracus  of  Manetho,  the  Tearco  of 
Strabo4,  succeeded  Sevechus.  His  name,  written  Tarhak  or  Tar- 
haka,  is  found  on  the  internal  face  of  the  pylon  of  a  building 

1  5S~iD  which  without  the  points  may  be  read  Seva. 

2  Isaiah  xix.  18,  folL  8  xi.  11.  4  B.  1,  pi  61. 


THE  TWENTY -FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


311 


erected  at  Medic  et  Aboo  by  Thothmes  IV.1  and  at  Gebel-el-Birkel, 
with  the  date  of  his  twentieth  year,  which,  according  to  Eusebius, 
must  have  been  the  last  of  his  sovereignty  over  Egypt.  Other 
inscriptions  remain  in  which  he  is  mentioned,  but  they  give  us  no 
other  knowledge  concerning  him  than  the  name  of  his  queen  and 
of  the  nurse  of  his  daughter.  The  Egypto-Ethiopian  monarchy 
must  have  been  very  powerful,  though  Memphis  had  been  given 
up  to  Sethos.  Strabo  speaks  of  him  as  rivalling  Sesostris  in  the 
extent  of  his  foreign  expeditions,  and  as  having  reached  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules2.  These  are  evident  exaggerations,  but  they  prove  the 
historical  fame  of  Tirhakah,  and  may  have  had  their  foundation  in 
an  expedition  into  Western  Africa,  of  which  the  Phoenician  colo- 
nies were  the  object  and  limit.  The  narrative  of  the  expedition  of 
Sennacherib  against  Judaea  and  Egypt  indicates  the  opinion  enter- 
tained of  his  power.  The  king  of  Assyria  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
conduct  of  Hezekiah,  who,  after  having  paid  him  a  heavy  contri- 
bution in  gold  and  silver,  was  meditating  defection  in  hope  of  aid 
from  Egypt.  He  had  taken  all  the  strong  places  of  Judah,  and 
from  Lachish,  a  town  in  the  plain  of  Sephela,  on  the  road  to 
Egypt,  which  he  was  besieging,  he  sent  a  powerful  detachment 
with  a  threatening  message  to  Hezekiah3.  The  king  himself  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  were  filled  with  alarm  ;  but  Isaiah 
encouraged  them  by  a  prediction,  that  Sennacherib  "  should  hear 
a  rumor  and  return  to  his  own  land4."  This  rumor  was  evidently 
of  the  march  of  Tirhakah  to  the  relief  of  Judaea,  the  expectation  of 
which  had  emboldened  Hezekiah  to  withdraw  the  submission 

1  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  2,  109.  2  B.  1,  p.  61 ;  15,  p.  687. 

9  Isaiah  xxxvi.  xxxvii. ;  2  Kings  xviii.  xix. 

4  The  common  Translation  has,  "  I  will  send  a  blast  upon  him,  and  he 
shall  hear  a  rumor  and  return  to  his  own  land,"  in  which  there  appears  to 
be  a  reference  to  the  miraculous  destruction  of  his  army.  But  this  is  an 
error.  Archbishop  Seeker  and  Bishop  Lowth  translate  the  passage,  "I  will 
infuse  a  spirit  into  him,"  and  explain  it,  "a  spirit  of  cowardice." 


312 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


which  he  had  recently  made.  The  narrative,  however,  implies 
that  there  was  another  power  in  Egypt  on  which  Hezekiah  relied ; 
for  Sennacherib  in  his  taunting  message  says,  "  On  whom  dost  thou 
trust,  that  thou  rebellest  against  me  ?  Lo,  thou  trustest  in  the  star! 
of  this  broken  reed,  on  Egypt ;  whereon  if  a  man  lean  it  will  go 
into  his  hand  and  pierce  it ;  so  is  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt  to  all 
who  trust  in  him."  Now  we  learn  from  Herodotus  that  after  the 
retirement  of  "  the  Ethiopian  "  from  Egypt,  and  the  resumption 
of  power  by  the  king  who  had  fled  into  the  marshes,  Sethos,  a 
priest  of  Hephaistos,  made  himself  king,  probably  only  of  part  of 
Lower  Egypt.  He  treated  the  warrior  caste,  not  only  with  contempt, 
but  with  injustice,  endeavoring  to  deprive  them  of  the  lands  which 
preceding  kings  had  allotted  to  them.  The  consequence  was  that 
when  Sennacherib,  whom  Herodotus  calls  king  of  the  Assyrians 
and  Arabians,  invaded  Egypt,  the  military  refused  to  march 
against  him.  The  priest,  reduced  to  despair,  went  into  the  sanc- 
tuary of  his  god,  and  lamented  to  him  his  condition.  In  the  midst 
of  his  lamentations  he  fell  asleep,  and  a  dream  came  over  him,  in 
which  the  god  appeared  to  stand  beside  him  and  exhort  him  to 
fear  nothing  from  an  encounter  with  the  Arabians,  for  that  he 
would  send  him  defenders.  Relying  on  the  dream,  Sethos  marched 
to  meet  the  enemy,  attended  by  those  of  the  Egyptians  who  chose 
to  go.  But  none  of  the  military  joined  him  ;  his  forces  were  com- 
posed of  men  altogether  unused  to  warfare,  tradesmen  and  artifi- 
cers, and  the  loose  population  of  a  great  city1.  With  such  troops 
Sennacherib  might  well  describe  him  as  a  broken  reed,  and  warn 
Hezekiah  of  the  folly  of  trusting  to  his  succor.  Similar  warnings 
not  to  trust  in  the  power  of  Egypt  are  given  by  the  prophet  him- 
self in  the  thirtieth  and  thirty-first  chapters,  which  notwithstanding 
the  place  in  which  they  now  stand,  appear  to  refer  to  this  alliance, 
and  indicate  that  Lower  Egypt  was  the  seat  of  the  power  with 

1  "Eneadai  ol  ruK  /xa^ipiov  piv  oidtva  dv6pwvy  Kurrf/Xovs  6i  Kal  ^eipcovaKras  xci 

(Her.  2,  141.) 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


313 


■whom  it  was  made.  Sethos  encamped,  however,  nea?  Pelusium, 
to  defend  the  entrance  of  Egypt.  The  narrative  of  Scripture  does 
not  speak  of  Sennacherib's  advancing  so  far  as  Pelusium  ;  but  both 
Libna  and  Lachish  were  on  the  way  from  Jerusalem  to  Egypt,  and 
it  was  natural  that  if  he  apprehended  an  attack  from  that  quarter, 
he  should  send  a  portion  of  his  troops  to  seize  Pelusium,  which 
was  equally  the  key  of  Egypt  and  of  Palestine.  He  could  do  it 
the  more  safely  as  he  had  already  reduced  the  Arabians,  who  had 
possession  of  the  south-western  coast  of  Palestine  and  the  Desert, 
through  which  an  army  must  pass1.  No  battle,  however,  ensued  ; 
during  the  night  an  immense  multitude  of  field  mice  covered  the 
encampment  of  the  Assyrians  and  gnawed  the  strings  of  their 
bows  and  the  straps  of  their  shields.  Finding  themselves  thus  left 
defenceless,  in  the  morniug  they  betook  themselves  to  flight,  and 
many  were  slain  by  the  Egyptians.  A  statue  of  Sethos  was  set  up 
in  the  temple  of  Hephaistos,  holding  a  mouse  in  his  hand,  with 
this  inscription,  "  Whosoever  looks  on  me,  let  him  be  pious."  We 
can  have  no  doubt  from  whom  Herodotus  derived  his  tale — the 
priests  of  the  temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis.  The  mouse  was  an 
emblem  of  destruction2,  and  it  may  be  that  the  narrative  of  the 
defeat  of  Sennacherib's  army  owed  its  specific  form  to  this  circum- 
stance. We  must  believe  that  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  the  tem- 
ple of  Memphis  contained  such  a  statue  as  he  describes 3 ;  but  that 
it  was  the  statue  of  Sethos,  or  that  the  inscription  meant  what  his 
guides  told  him,  is  not  equally  certain.    The  Jewish  account  is 

1  Comp.  Herod.  3,  4-10. 

'  'Atyavicuov  6i]\ovvres  pvv  {wyovpoiimv  ivciSn  iravra  eadiuv  fiiaivei  Kal  dxprjaroT. 

(Horap.  Hierog.  1,  50.)  The  mouse  is  produced  in  sudden  and  extraordi- 
nary numbers  in  Egypt,  and  causes  great  destruction.  '  El.  Hist.  Anim. 
6,  41.)  The  ancients  were  not  satisfied  without  exaggerating  their  destruc- 
tive powers,  and  the  story  of  their  gnawing  bowstrings  is  told  of  other 
places.    (Strabo,  13,  p.  604.) 

3  Kai  v  v  v  ovtos  6  /3a<ri\£vs  I  <?  r  ike  iv  r&>  tpu)  row  'Hfaiarov  >/0(foj.  (2,141.) 
VOL.  II.  14 


314 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


more  faithful  than  the  Egyptian,  inasmuch  as  it  notices  the  rumor 
of  Tirbakah's  expedition,  while  the  Egyptian  makes  the  cause  of 
the  Assyrians'  retreat  wholly  supernatural.  Pestilence  and  panic 
appear  to  have  combined  in  bringing  it  about1.  The  flight  of 
Sennacherib  probably  put  a  stop  to  the  march  of  Tirhakah. 
Wh ether  he  ended  his  days  as  sovereign  of  the  Thebais,  or  retired 
into  Ethiopia  and  continued  to  reign  there,  we  do  not  know ;  but 
it  is  evident  that  the  seat  of  his  power  must  have  been  in  Upper 
Egypt,  when  the  rumor  of  his  coming  could  produce  such  a  sudden 
retreat  of  the  Assyrians. 

The  two  circumstances  which  characterize  the  reign  of  Sethos, 
the  usurpation  of  supreme  power  by  a  priest,  and  the  degradation 
of  the  military  caste,  indicate  a  decay  of  the  ancient  constitution  of 
Egypt.  That  the  increase  of  population  in  the  great  towns  of 
Lower  Egypt,  the  consequence  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the 
growth  of  commerce,  should  have  made  the  civil  element  much 
more  important  than  it  had  been  in  the  flourishing  days  of  the 
monarchy,  was  natural.  It  was  not  less  natural  that  this  rise  of 
the  commercial  and  working  class  should  be  attended  with  a  change 
in  the  military  system.  Widely  different  as  the  Calasirians  and 
Hermotybians  were  in  many  respects  from  the  Geomori  of  Athens 
before  the  time  of  Solon,  and  the  Hippeis  and  Zeugitae  of  his  con- 
stitution, from  the  original  Plebs  of  Rome  and  the  Feudal  army  of 
the  Middle  Ages — in  one  respect  they  all  agreed  ;  landed  property 
and  military  service  were  conjoined.  And  all  these,  in  process  of 
time,  yielded  up  their  exclusive  right  to  bear  arms,  and  admitted 
into  partnership  with  them  in  this  function,  the  mixed  multitude 
whom  the  progress  of  society  engenders  in  flourishing  towns.  At 
Athens  the  change  was  brought  about  by  the  rise  of  its  naval 

1  "The  Assyrian  shall  fall  by  a  sword,  not  of  man; 
Yea,  a  sword,  not  of  mortal,  shall  devour  him  : 
And  he  shall  betake  himself  to  flight  from  the  face  of  the  sword. 
And  the  courage  of  his  chosen  men  shall  fail." — Is.  xxxi.  8. 


THE  TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY. 


315 


power,  which  transferred  the  chief  strength  of  the  state  from  the 
land  to  the  sea.  At  Rome  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  were  not  suf- 
ficient to  supply  the  demand  of  a  military  republic,  and  employ- 
ment and  pay  were  needed  for  the  city  population.  In  modern 
Europe  the  rise  of  the  cities  was  everywhere  accompanied  with  a 
more  promiscuous  constitution  of  the  military  force,  and  at  no  long 
interval  with  the  establishment  of  mercenary  troops.  We  know 
not  how  the  elevation  of  Sethos  took  place ;  but  it  is  evident  that 
he  relied  on  the  town  population  as  the  instruments  of  his  design 
of  depressing  the  ancient  military  body.  His  power  appears  to 
have  been  exercised  tyrannically;  for  Herodotus  speaks  of  the 
Egyptians  as  being  set  free  after  his  reign1.  He  notices  no  anar- 
chy as  supervening  upon  his  death,  but  his  usurpation  and  his 
encroachments  on  the  military  order  render  it  abundantly  proba- 
ble; and  Diodorus  informs  us  that  it  actually  took  place2,  and 
assigns  two  years  as  its  duration.  The  nineteenth  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
written  about  this  time,  perhaps  towards  the  close  of  Sethos'  usur- 
pation, foretells  a  state  of  complete  anarchy  and  the  consequent 
depopulation  and  impoverishment  of  the  country,  to  be  succeeded, 
as  anarchy  usually  is,  by  the  reign  of  a  despotic  monarch.  "  I  will 
set  the  Egyptians  against  the  Egyptians,  and  they  shall  fight  every 
one  against  his  brother,  and  every  one  against  his  neighbor,  city 
against  city,  and  kingdom  against  kingdom.  And  the  Egyptians 
will  I  give  over  into  the  hand  of  a  cruel  lord,  and  a  fierce  king 
shall  rule  over  them.  In  that  day  shall  Egypt  be  like  unto  women ; 
and  it  shall  be  afraid  and  fear,  because  of  the  shaking  of  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  which  he  hath  determined  against  it.  And 
the  land  of  Judah  shall  be  a  terror  unto  Egypt;  every  one  that 

1  2,  147.  'EXevQepayOevrei  Aiyvirrioi  ftcra  tov  Ipea  tov  'H^'it'orov  PaaiAcv- 
aavra  (ovbtva  yap  ^povov  olol  te  nnav  aieo  fiaoi^zoi  Siairdadai)  iarrtaavTO  6vu>0EKa 
/3aai\tas. 

■  1,  66.  He  places  it  immediately  after  the  retirement  of  the  Ethiopian, 
and  does  not  mention  Sethos. 


316 


HISTORY    OF  EGYPT. 


maketh  mention  thereof  shall  be  afraid  in  himself."  We  know  of 
no  period  in  Egyptian  history  to  which  this  description  is  at  all 
applicable,  except  that  which  Diodorus  designates  as  the  anarchy1. 
The  effects  which  it  is  described  as  producing  on  the  condition  of 
Egypt,  however,  seem  to  indicate  a  longer  duration  than  two  years, 
and  Diodorus  is  never  a  safe  guide  in  chronology. 

The  invasion  of  Judaea  by  Sennacherib  took  place  713  b.  c,  and 
this  fixes  a  date  for  the  reigns  of  Sethos  at  Memphis  and  Tirhakah 
in  the  Thebaid  and  Ethiopia.  The  chronology  of  the  two  centuries 
and  a  half  between  the  invasion  of  Sheshonk  and  that  of  Senna- 
cherib, cannot  be  settled  in  detail,  from  the  variations  in  the  lists 
and  the  chasms  in  the  series  of  the  monuments.  Supposing  Shes- 
honk to  have  invaded  Judaea  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  the  21st 
dynasty  to  have  lasted  116  years,  according  to  Manetho,  the  22nd, 
89  years,  the  24th,  6  years,  and  the  25th,  40,  these  numbers  (116 
+  89  -(-6  +  40)  amount  to  251,  a  coincidence  sufficiently  close  to 
show  that  Manetho  is  substantially  correct.  Eusebius  makes  them 
(49  +  44  +  44  +  44)  181  years. 


Twenty-sixth  Dynasty.    Nine  Saite  kings. 


AFRICANUS. 


1.  Stephinates,  reigned 

2.  Nechepsos  .    .    .  . 

3.  Nechao  

4.  psammitichus  .    .  . 

5.  Nechao  II  


Years. 
7 
6 
8 


54 


6 


He  took  Jerusalem  and  carried  Jehoash  the 


king  captive  into  Egypt. 
6.  Psammutiiis  II  


6 


1  Gesenius  on  Is.  xix.  refers  the  delivery  of  the  prophecy  to  the  time  of 
Psammitichus;  but  Isaiah  began  to  prophesy  in  the  reign  of  Uzziah,  who  died 
757  b.  a,  and  cannot  have  been  contemporary  with  Psainmitichus. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY.  ^  317 

Years, 

7.  TJaphris  19 

To  him  the  remnant  of  the  Jews  fled  when  the 
Assyrians  took  Jerusalem.' 

8.  Amosis  44 

9.  Psammeche  kites   6  months. 

150  6  m. 

EUSEBIUS. 

Years. 

1.  Ammeris,  the  Ethiopian,  reigned  12  (Arm.  18) 

2.  Stephixathis   ...  7 

3.  Xechepsos  6 

4.  Nechao  8 

5.  Psammitichus  45  (Armi.  44i 

6.  Nechao  IL  6 

7.  Psammuthis  II.  who  is  also  Psammitichus    .    .  17 

8.  Uaphris  25 

9.  Amosis  42 

168 


We  find  the  list  of  Manetho  beginning  with  three  names  before 
that  of  Psammitichus,  whom  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  represent  as 
raising  himself  to  the  throne  when  he  had  put  down  the  Dodecar- 
chia.  It  seems  to  have  been  his  principle  to  admit  of  no  interreg- 
num ;  he  takes  cognizance  neither  of  the  anarchy  of  which  Dio- 
dorus speaks,  nor  of  the  subsequent  agreement  among  the  chiefs 
of  the  principal  cities,  but  makes  Stephinates  found  the  26th 
dynasty  immediately  on  the  cessation  of  the  25th  or  Ethiopian. 
The  list  of  Eusebius  gives  a  fourth  Ethiopian  king,  Ammeris,  who 
is  certainly  misplaced  at  the  head  of  the  Saitic  dynasty,  but  may 
have  been  transposed  from  the  close  of  the  Ethiopian.  In  this  case 
we  must  regard  the  Ethiopian  power  as  continuing  to  maintain 
itself  at  Thebes,  while  Sethos  called  himself  king  at  Memphis,  and 
another  power,  seated  at  Sais,  claimed  to  be  the  depositary  of  legi- 


318 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


timate  authority.  No  such  king  as  Ammeres  has  been  found  in 
the  monuments  of  Thebes1. 

We  are  not  informed  in  what  relation  this  new  dynasty  of  Saite 
kings  stood  to  Bocchoris  the  Saite,  whom  Sabaco  deposed  and  put 
to  death  ;  but  in  the  statement  of  Herodotus2,  that  the  blind  king 
who  had  fled  into  the  island  of  Elbo  in  the  marshes,  when  the 
Ethiopians  invaded  Egypt,  returned  when  they  retired,  we  may 
probably  trace  the  fact,  that  Sais  still  claimed  the  sovereignty  over 
the  district  of  Lower  Egypt  in  which  it  stood,  during  the  whole 
time  of  the  Ethiopian  dominion.  Thus  Egypt  was  truly  divided, 
"  every  one  against  his  neighbor,  city  against  city,  kingdom  against 
kingdom,"  the  upper  country  being  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Ethiopians,  Sethos  ruling  at  Memphis,  and  over  the  country 
towards  the  frontiers  of  Palestine,  and  the  Saitic  nome  and  western 
mouths  of  the  Nile,  near  one  of  which  Elbo  stood,  being  under 
the  sway  of  the  princes  from  whom  Psammitichus  descended. 
That  hostile  relations  existed  between  them  and  the  Ethiopians  is 
evident  from  the  account  of  Herodotus,  that  Necho  the  father  of 
Psammitichus  had  been  put  to  death  by  Sabaco3.  This  cannot 
have  been  literally  true  ;  but  we  have  seen  that  to  Herodotus  the 
name  of  Sabaco  represented  the  whole  Ethiopic  dynasty,  which,  as 
enlarged  by  the  addition  of  Ammeres,  will  occupy  the  space  from 
Sabaco  to  Necho.  The  first  act  recorded  of  this  dynasty  was  the 
putting  of  Bocchoris  the  Saite  to  death  ;  the  last,  a  similar  act  of 
violence  towards  the  Saite  Necho.  This  is  a  reasonable  presump- 
tion that  during  this  whole  time  Sais  maintained  at  least  a  claim 
of  independence,  and  will  explain  its  subsequent  elevation  to  the 
supremacy  over  all  Egypt. 

The  ruins  of  Ssa,  the  ancient  Sais,  attest  its  former  grandeur ; 
the  wall  of  crude  brick  which  surrounded  the  principal  buildings 

1  Bunsen,  B.  2,  139.    Lepsius  has  discovered  at  Thebes  a  queen  Amnerith, 
whose  name,  he  thinks,  might  give  rise  to  that  of  Ammeres. 
3  2,  140.  3  2,  152. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


319 


of  the  city  was  seventy  feet  thick,  and  therefore  probably  not  less 
than  100  feet  in  height.  It  encloses  an  area  2325  feet  in  length, 
by  1960  in  breadth,  and  traces  appear  in  it  of  the  lake  in  which 
according  to  Herodotus  the  mysteries  of  Osiris  were  performed ; 
of  the  temple  of  Minerva,  and  the  tombs  of  the  Saitic  kings. 
There  are  also  beyond  this  enclosure  two  large  cemeteries,  one  for 
the  interment  of  the  privileged  classes,  the  other  of  the  common 
people1.  The  site,  however,  has  been  very  imperfectly  explored  by 
modern  travellers,  and  much  may  remain  undiscovered  which  will 
throw  light  on  the  history  of  the  last  dynasty  of  the  independent 
Pharaohs.  The  names  of  Stephinates,  Necepsos  and  Nechao  L 
have  not  yet  been  found  on  any  monument. 

Herodotus,  when  he  resumes  the  history  of  Egypt  after  the 
reign  of  Sethos,  remarks  that  from  this  time  forward  he  shall 
relate  that  in  which  the  Egyptians  and  other  nations  agree2. 
Previously  to  this  time  there  was  no  other  testimony  to  control  the 
accounts  which  the  "  Egyptians  and  the  priests  "  gave  of  their  own 
history3 :  no  Greek  had  advanced  beyond  Naucratis,  and  no  record 
was  left  even  of  the  imperfect  knowledge  of  Egypt  which  they 
might  thus  have  gained.  The  effect  is  immediately  visible,  and 
we  have  henceforth  a  definite  chronology,  an  authentic  succession 
of  kings  conformable  to  the  monuments,  and  a  history  composed 
of  credible  facts.  He  thus  relates  the  circumstances  which  led  to 
the  establishment  of  the  monarchy  of  Psammitichus  : — "  Being 
freed  after  the  government  of  Sethos  the  priest  of  Hephaistos,  the 
Egyptians,  who  never  could  live  without  a  king,  set  up  for  them- 
selves twelve  kings,  dividing  all  Egypt  into  twelve  parts.  These 
kings  gave  one  another  mutual  rights  of  intermarriage*,  and  entered 
into  an  agreement  to  abstain  from  all  acts  of  aggression  and  live  in 
entire  friendship.    The  reason  of  their  binding  themselves  so  strictly 

1  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Eg.  &  Thebes,  1,  183.  Champollion,  Lettres,  50-53. 

3  2,  147.  3  2,  142. 

4  Probably  agreeing  not  to  marry  out  of  the  twelve  families. 


320 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


was,  tliat  when  they  entered  on  their  several  sovereignties,  an  oracle 
had  declared  that  whichever  of  them  should  offer  a  libation  to 
Hephaistos  with  a  brazen  helmet1  would  be  the  king  of  all  Egypt. 
It  was  to  this  temple  that  they  all  repaired  in  a  body.  For  a  long 
time  all  observed  faithfully  the  terms  of  their  alliance.  But  it 
happened  one  day  that  as  they  were  sacrificing,  the  chief  priest 
brought  out  only  eleven  vessels  of  libation  instead  of  twelve,  and 
that  Psammitichus,  who  stood  last  in  the  row,  took  off  his  brazen 
helmet,  received  the  sacred  wine  in  it,  and  poured  it  out  in  libation. 
He  had  no  sinister  design — all  the  other  kin^s  had  helmets  and 
were  wearing  them  at  the  time.  But  the  oracle  was  brought  to 
their  mind,  and  though  upon  examining  Psammitichus  they  found 
that  he  was  innocent  of  any  evil  purpose  and  therefore  could  not 
put  him  to  death,  they  determined  to  strip  him  of  the  chief  part 
of  his  power,  and  confine  him  to  the  marshes  on  the  coast2,  from 
which  he  was  not  to  go  out  into  any  other  part  of  Egypt.  In  the 
former  part  of  his  life  Psammitichus  had  been  an  exile  in  Syria, 
his  father  Necho  having  been  put  to  death  by  Sabaco  ;  and  the 
people  of  the  Saitic  nome  had  brought  him  back  and  replaced 
him  in  the  sovereignty.  Feeling  himself  to  have  been  treated 
with  great  injustice  by  the  eleven  kings,  he  sought  the  means  of 
being  avenged,  and  sent  from  his  retreat  to  consult  the  oracle  of 
Latona  at  Buto,  which  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  truth- 
ful in  all  Egypt.  He  received  in  answer  from  the  oracle  a  predic- 
tion 1  that  he  should  have  retribution  on  his  enemies  by  means  of 
brazen  men  appearing  from  the  sea.'  That  brazen  men  should 
come  to  his  aid  appeared  to  him  a  thing  utterly  incredible ;  but 
not  long  after,  some  Ionians  and  Carians  who  had  sailed  on  a 
piratical  expedition  wrere  driven  by  stress  of  weather  to  the  coast 

1  This  is  only  another  form  of  the  same  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 
Egyptians,  produced  by  subsequent  events,  that  the  brazen-armed  foreigners 
were  to  be  the  means  of  overthrowing  the  Dodecarehia. 

a  Diod.  1,  66.     vpoard^at  iiarpifiety  iv  rotj  eXsai  tois  napa  daXarrav. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


321 


of  Egypt,  and  landing  in  their  complete  suits  of  brazen  armor  began 
to  plunder  the  country.  An  Egyptian  who  had  never  before  seen 
men  in  a  panoply  of  brass,  hastened  into  the  marshes  to  Psammi- 
tichus with  the  intelligence  that  brazen  men  had  come  from  the 
sea.  He  at  once  recognized  the  fulfilment  of  the  oracle,  engaged 
the  Ionians  and  Carians  in  his  service  by  magnificent  promises, 
and  with  the  assistance  of  the  Egyptians  who  favored  his  cause, 
he  defeated  the  other  dodecarchs1."  It  was  natural  that  the  author- 
ity of  an  oracle  should  be  pleaded  for  a  proceeding  so  repugnant 
to  Egyptian  feeling  as  the  engagement  of  a  body  of  foreign  merce- 
naries to  fight  against  native  Egyptians,  but  we  can  hardly  believe 
that  their  appearance  was  accidental  as  the  story  represents.  It  is 
evident,  from  the  account  of  Diodorus,  that  Psammitichus,  who, 
by  his  possession  of  Sais  and  of  course  Naucratis,  had  the  readiest 
access  to  the  sea,  had  encouraged  the  visits  of  Phoenicians  and 
Greeks2,  and  had  excited  the  jealousy  of  his  colleagues  not  only 
by  the  wealth  he  thus  acquired,  but  by  the  friendly  relations  which 
he  had  established  with  foreigners.  In  regard  to  mythic  times, 
the  tendency  of  Diodorus  and  the  authors  of  his  age  to  find  his- 
torical explanations  for  everything  makes  their  accounts  suspicious. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  Herodotus  is  disposed  to  attribute  to  dreams, 
oracles  and  prodigies  what  had  its  origin  in  political  causes.  The 
mention  of  Carians  renders  it  probable  that  the  Ionians  here 
spoken  of  were  Milesians,  whose  territory  was  surrounded  by  that 
of  the  Carians,  pirates  and  rovers  from  the  earliest  times.  The 
Milesians  had  visited  Egypt  for  half  a  century  before  the  Dode- 
carchia,  and  nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  Psamrni- 

1  There  was  another  version  of  the  oracle,  that  Tementhas,  one  of  the 
dodecarchs,  had  been  warned  to  beware  of  cocks,  and  that  .Psammitichus, 
understanding  this  of  the  crests  of  the  Carian  helmets  (Her.  1,  171),  imme- 
diately engaged  them.    (Polysen.  Strat  7,  3.) 

a  'Ek  t£  rfjg  '  Apa/?iu$  koX  rns  Ktiptaj  Kai  rrjs  'luivias  niffQo<p6povs  fie  r  air  e  pip  ii  [i  tv  o  j. 
(Dioi  1,  66.) 

14* 


322 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


tichus,  a  native  of  Sais,  should  engage  their  services,  when  he  had 
been  deprived  of  his  share  of  the  government  by  the  injustice  of 
his  colleagues.  He  had  not  trusted  to  Greek  mercenaries  alone  ; 
during  his  exile  under  the  Ethiopian  sway  he  had  formed  connexions 
with  the  Arabians  who  border  on  Egypt  and  Palestine,  and  Dio- 
dorus  tells  us  that  he  had  sent  for  them,  and  that  they  composed 
a  part  of  the  forces  with  which  he  overthrew  the  Dodecarchs. 
The  battle  was  fought  at  Momemphis1  near  the  Canopic  branch  of 
the  Nile,  and  on  the  shore  of  the  Lake  Mareotis.  Some  of  the 
dodecarchs  were  slain  ;  the  rest  escaped  into  Libya,  near  the  bor- 
ders of  which  the  battle  took  place. 

According  to  Herodotus,  the  dodecarchs  while  they  lived 
together  in  peace  conceived  the  wish  to  leave  a  joint  memorial  of 
themselves,  and  in  fulfilment  of  this  design  built  a  labyrinth2  near 
the  Lake  Mceris,  and  not  far  from  the  town  of  Crocodilopolis.  It 
is  evident  from  other  passages  of  his  history3  that  he  did  not  pos- 
sess an  aptitude  for  measuring  the  proportion  between  causes  and 
effects,  otherwise  he  would  not  have  attributed  such  a  work  to  a 
period  of  divided  power  and  no  very  long  duration.  We  know 
that  Ammenemes  was  the  founder  of  the  Labyrinth  ;  its  different 
parts  had  their  several  uses — sepulchres  of  the  sacred  crocodiles — 
halls  of  assembly  for  the  different  nomes — temples  in  which  the 
tutelary  gods  of  each  might  be  worshipped.  It  is  more  probable 
that  the  story  of  its  having  been  built  by  the  Dodecarchs  origi- 
nated in  the  number  of  the  principal  courts  being  twelve,  answer- 
ing either  to  the  months  of  the  year  or  the  chief  gods  of  the  Fan- 

1  Called  Panonf  by  the  Copts,  and  Menouf  by  the  Arabs  (Champollion, 
Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  2,  252.) 

3  In  the  time  of  Herodotus  it  was  a  common  name  for  a  building  or  exca- 
vation of  a  great  variety  of  passages.  He  does  not  call  it  The  Labyrinth, 
but  "  a  labyrinth,"  "  this  labyrinth." 

3  For  instance,  his  believing  that  the  Lake  Moeris  had  been  excavated 
and  the  earth  thrown  into  the  Xile.    (2,  150.) 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


323 


theon,  or  to  the  original  number  of  the  nomes1.  Diodorus,  who 
ascribes  the  building  of  the  Labyrinth  to  Mendes  or  Maims,  before 
the  Trojan  war2,  makes  the  building  begun  by  the  Dodecarchs  to 
be  distinct  from  it,  yet  apparently  on  the  same  site.  The  Laby- 
rinth was  remarkable  for  the  multiplicity  of  its  rooms  and  passages ; 
the  mausoleum  of  the  Dodecarchs  for  a  large  peristyle  hall,  and 
apartments  adorned  with  pictures,  representing  the  religious  rites  of 
the  district  to  which  the  chiefs  severally  belonged.  The  work  was 
left  unfinished  at  the  dissolution  of  the  Dodecarchy.  Perhaps 
antiquarian  research  may  show  that  the  remains  are  of  two  differ- 
ent ages,  and  thus  justify  Diodorus. 

Psammitichus  L  (6*70  b.  c),  having  established  himself  in 
power  by  means  of  his  foreign  allies  and  a  portion  of  the  Egyp- 
tian people,  fulfilled  the  promises  by  which  he  had  engaged  them 
to  assist  him.  He  allotted  them  a  district  on  the  Pelusiac  branch 
of  the  Nile,  a  little  nearer  to  the  sea  than  the  city  of  Bubastis,  and 
allowed  them  to  construct  fortifications.  His  foreign  mercenaries 
and  the  native  Egyptians  who  had  joined  him3  were  stationed  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  river — a  necessary  precaution,  as  even  their 
engagement  in  the  same  service  could  hardly  have  prevented  hos- 
tilities between  them  ;  such  was  the  contempt  of  the  Greeks  for 
Egyptian  superstition,  and  the  horror  of  the  Egyptians  for  Grecian 
usages4.  As  the  Phoenicians  had  borne  a  part  in  establishing  him 
on  the  throne,  it  is  probable  that  their  settlement  at  Memphis,  in 
what  was  called  the  Tyrian  Camp,  dates  from  the  same  time6.  It 
was  in  great  measure  commercial,  or  if  meant  for  warlike  purposes 
was  a  naval  station ;  but  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Egyptians  was 

1  Strabo,  17,  p.  787,  811.  3  1,  61. 

3  ToTfft  "Iwfft  Kal  Total  avyKarepyaaafiivoint  avrco  b  "^Pa/z/urt^oj 
SidbXTi  %u>povs  ivoiicrjaai  dvriovs  dXAr/Xcov,  tov  Nti'Xov  to  fiivov  Z%ovros'  roTai  oivd^tara 
iredri  ErparoVfcJa.  (Her.  2,  154.)  Compare  rol^i  fitr'  luvrov  (3ov\ofiivoi<Ti 
Atyvirrioiot  (2,  152). 

4  Her.  2,  41.  6  Her.  2,  112. 


324 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


evidently  designed  to  form  a  body  of  troops  on  whom  he  might 
rely  for  the  maintenance  of  his  throne,  to  which  the  ancient  militia 
of  the  country,  the  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians,  were  made  to 
give  way.  The  Ionians  and  Carians  would  no  doubt  receive  acces- 
sions by  fresh  immigration  ;  in  the  reign  of  Apries  they  amounted 
to  30,000  men1.  Amasis  subsequently  removed  them  to  Memphis, 
that  they  might  aid  him  more  effectually  against  the  Egyptians ; 
but  their  docks,  and  the  foundations  of  their  houses,  were  still  to 
be  seen  at  their  original  settlement  in  the  time  of  Herodotus2. 

Psammitichus  also  caused  Egyptian  children  to  be  placed  under 
the  instruction  of  the  Greeks,  that  they  might  become  masters  of 
the  language,  and  they  and  their  descendants  became,  after  the 
model  of  Egyptian  life,  a  yivog  or  hereditary  caste  of  Interpreters. 
It  is  important  to  remark  that  the  Greeks  never  appear  to  have 
acquired  the  Egyptian  language,  but  to  have  depended  entirely 
upon  native  interpreters.  Their  knowledge  might  have  been  much 
more  comprehensive  and  accurate,  had  they  been  able  to  converse 
with  the  inhabitants,  to  check  the  accounts  which  they  received 
from  their  dragoman  by  their  own  inquiry,  to  test  the  correctness 
of  the  popular  explanations  of  names,  and  cross-question  an 
informant  who  might  be  inclined  to  impose  on  the  ignorance  of  a 
stranger.  Unfortunately  the  Greeks  in  all  ages  disdained  the 
acquirement  of  barbarous  tongues.  Herodotus,  with  all  his  zeal 
for  knowledge,  does  not  appear  in  his  wide  journeyings  to  have 
learned  more  than  a  chance  word  or  two  of  the  languages  of  the 
countries  which  he  visited.  For  commercial  and  political  purposes 
they  used  interpreters,  who  were  commonly  not  Greeks,  but  barba- 
rians speaking  Greek3.  No  Greek  philosopher  ever  condescended 
to  study  another  language  than  his  own  for  ethnographical  or 

1  Her.  2,  163.  2  2,  154. 

3  Timesitheus,  the  Trapezuntian,  addresses  the  Mosynoeci  in  their  own 
language  (Xen.  Anab.  5,  4),  but  he  was  the  Proxenus  of  their  nation. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


325 


philological  purposes1.  The  versatile  Greek  intellect  cannot  have 
wanted  aptitude  for  such  attainments  ;  but  the  perfection  of  their 
own  language  in  sound  and  structure  would  make  those  of  Asia 
and  Egypt  seem  harsh  and  clumsy.  The  caste  of  interpreters  in 
Egypt  was  probably  formed  from  the  lowest  people  ;  Herodotus 
places  them  last  but  one  in  his  enumeration2,  immediately  before 
the  pilots,  with  whom  Egyptians  would  hold  no  intercourse3 ;  they 
possessed  no  knowledge  of  the  character  with  which  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt  were  covered  ;  but  being  compelled  to  satisfy  the 
curiosity  of  the  Greeks,  they  gave  such  superficial  explanations  as 
might  correspond  with  their  most  obvious  features.  Before  the 
Persian  conquest,  very  few  Greeks  penetrated  into  Upper  Egypt. 
Those  who  came  for  commercial  purposes  would  be  attracted  to 
Sais;  those  who,  like  Thales,  or  Pythagoras,  or  Solon,  sought 
scientific  knowledge,  would  find  it  at  Sais,  Heliopolis  and  Mem- 
phis4. The  old  national  feeling  of  the  Egyptians,  which  had 
been  weakened  in  Lower  Egypt  by  commercial  intercourse,  sub- 
sisted in  all  its  intensity  in  the  Upper  country,  where,  except  the 
kindred  Ethiopian,  the  face  of  a  stranger  was  rarely  seen. 

Xo  monument  of  any  magnitude,  bearing  the  name  of  Psam- 
mitichus,  remains  in  Egypt,  but  it  is  evident  that  the  whole  of  that 
country  was  subject  to  him,  as  his  shield  is  found  in  the  palace  at 
Karnak  and  in  a  little  island  of  granite  in  the  Xile  near  Philae. 
In  the  quarry  of  Tourah5,  the  design  of  a  monolithal  shrine 

1  Pythagoras  is  said  (Diog.  Laert.  8,  3)  to  have  learnt  the  Egyptian  lan- 
guage. 3   2,  164. 

*  Plut.   Is.   et   Osir.   p.    363.      K.vftepvriras   ov   -npooayopevovai,    on  xpwvrui 

0uXuff77J. 

4  The  account  of  Pythagoras  having  been  recommended  by  Amasis  to  the 
priests  of  Heliopolis,  and  by  them  put  off  with  a  reference  to  the  priests  of 
Memphis,  and  again  by  them  to  those  of  Thebes,  rest3  on  the  authority  of 
Antipho,  recorded  by  Porphyry. 

6  See  voL  i.  p.  118.    Champollion-Figeac,  l'Univers,  p.  367. 


326 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


intended  to  be  excavated  is  traced  on  the  rock  in  red  paint,  and 
the  cornice  bears  the  shield  of  Psammitichus.  Works  of  his  reign 
are  found  in  several  of  the  European  museums,  but  by  far  the  most 
remarkable  record  of  the  state  of  the  arts  is  the  obelisk  which 
stands  in  the  Monte  Citorio  at  Rome.  It  was  brought  by  Augus- 
tus from  Egypt  as  a  memorial  of  its  reduction  under  the  Roman 
power,  and  set  up  in  the  Campus  Martius  to  serve  as  a  gnomon, 
the  length  of  the  shadow  on  the  pavement  which  surrounded  it 
marking  the  longest  and  shortest  and  all  intermediate  days  of  the 
year1.  It  bears  the  phonetic  and  titular  shields  of  Psammitichus  I. 
It  is  about  seventy  feet  in  height ;  the  sculpture,  if  compared  with 
the  work  of  Thothmes  III.  at  St.  John  Lateran,  or  Menephthah  and 
Rameses  in  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  appears  inferior  in  execution, 
the  figures  being  less  deeply  and  finely  cut.  Yet  when  we  con- 
sider that  nearly  *700  years  had  elapsed  between  the  latest  of  these 
sovereigns  and  Psammitichus,  we  shall  be  astonished  that  art  had 
declined  so  little.  About  an  equal  length  of  time  intervenes 
between  the  execution  of  the  obelisk  of  Psammitichus  and  those 
of  Vespasian  and  Titus  in  the  Piazza  Navona ;  but  in  these  the 
inferiority  of  execution  is  obvious;  the  characters  are  rather 
scratched  than  cut  upon  the  granite,  and  the  design  is  cumbrous 
and  incorrect.  The  obelisk  appears  to  have  been  brought  from 
Heliopolis,  but  Psammitichus'  principal  works  were  intended  for 
the  embellishment  of  Memphis.  It  is  probable  that  an  epiphaneia 
or  manifestation  of  Apis  took  place  about  the  time  of  his  obtaining 
the  sovereignty,  and  to  gratify  the  people  of  Memphis  he  built  a 
splendid  court  in  which  he  might  be  shown  to  his  worshippers.  It 
was  in  front  of  the  propylaea  of  the  temple  of  Ptah2,  which  Psam- 
mitichus also  built,  and  was  surrounded  with  a  colonnade,  in  which 
colossal  figures,  twelve  cubits  in  height,  supplied  the  place  of  pil- 

1  Plin.  N.  H.  36,  10.    Zoega,  p.  612. 
3  Strabo,  11,  807. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY 


327 


lars1.  The  priests  who  had  the  charge  of  Apis  brought  him  forth 
into  this  court,  that  he  might  be  offered  food  by  his  votaries,  and 
an  omen  be  drawn  from  his  favorable  or  unfavorable  reception 
of  it. 

As  Psammitichus  had  obtained  the  throne  by  means  of  foreign 
mercenaries,  he  trusted  to  them  for  its  support,  increased  their 
numbers,  and  gave  them  precedence  in  honor  above  the  native 
troops.  This  produced  discontent  and  ultimately  revolt  on  the  part 
of  the  Calasirians  and  Hermotybians.  Its  immediate  occasion  is 
variously  reported.  One  of  his  military  enterprises  was  the  siege 
of  Azotus  or  Ashdod.  This  town,  one  of  the  five  called  in  Scrip- 
ture "  cities  of  the  Philistines,"  appears  to  have  been  a  place  of 
great  size  and  importance2,  and  the  key  of  Palestine  to  an  invading 
force  from  the  side  of  Egypt.  It  included  a  harbor  and  an  inland 
fortress3  like  Gaza,  which  lay  a  little  nearer  to  Egypt,  and  in  the 
age  of  Psammitichus  appears  to  have  had  the  same  place  in  mili- 
tary importance  for  the  attack  of  Palestine  from  Egypt,  or  Egypt 
from  Palestine,  as  Gaza  in  the  age  of  Alexander  the  Great,  who 
did  not  venture  to  pass  on  to  Egypt  till  he  had  taken  it4.  Azotus 
belonged  to  the  Philistines,  but  it  was  not  their  power  which  ena- 
bled it  to  resist  so  long  the  arms  of  Psammitichus.  We  find  from 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah5  that  it  had  been  besieged  and  taken  by 
Tartan,  the  general  of  Sargon  king  of  Assyria.  This  king  is  not 
elsewhere  named  in  history,  and  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  say 
whether  he  preceded  or  followed  Sennacherib ;  but  as  we  know  the 

1  Sir  G.  "Wilkinson  has  given  a  drawing  illustrative  of  it.  (Manners  and 
Customs,  1,  Frontispiece.) 

2  T/Js  Lvpiris  iteya\r}v  tto^iv.     (Her.  2,  157.) 

3  A£wros  irapakos,  "A^cjtos.  (Excerpta  ex  Not.  Patriarehat.  in  Reland. 
Palajst.  215.) 

4  Arrian,  2,  ad  Jin.  The  strength  of  Gaza  was  so  great  that  Alexander's 
engineers  pronounced  it  to  be  impregnable. 

6  Isaiah  xx. 


328 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


succession  of  Assyrian  kings  pretty  accurately  after  Sennacherib, 
the  probability  is  that  he  was  his  immediate  predecessor,  reigning 
only  for  a  short  time.  Tartan  was  in  the  service  of  Sennacherib, 
and  was  one  of  the  envoys  sent  by  him  to  Hezekiah  when  he 
invaded  Judaea  and  meditated  the  conquest  of  Egypt1.  Probably 
the  Assyrians  had  ever  since  kept  a  garrison  in  Azotus,  and  hence 
the  obstinate  defence  which  it  made.  Herodotus  says  it  lasted 
twenty-nine  years2,  but  we  can  only  understand  by  this,  that  from 
the  commencement  of  the  siege  to  the  capture  twenty-nine  years 
elapsed,  and  it  would  be  suspended  during  the  invasion  of  the 
Scythians.  It  was  in  these  operations  in  Syria  that,  according  to 
Diodorus,  who  however  does  not  specifically  mention  the  siege  of 
Azotus,  Psammitichus  offended  his  Egyptian  troops,  by  allotting  to 
the  mercenaries  the  post  of  honor  in  the  right  wing.  Herodotus 
gives  a  different  account.  He  says  that  in  the  reign  of  this  king 
garrisons  were  stationed  in  Elephantine  against  the  Ethiopians,  in 
Daphne  near  Pelusium  against  the  Arabians  and  Syrians,  and  in 
Marea  against  the  Libyans,  to  the  number  in  all  of  240,000  men. 
For  three  years  these  garrisons  were  not  relieved,  and  the  soldiers 
having  communicated  with  one  another,  all  revolted  from  Psammi- 
tichus and  marched  away  into  Ethiopia.  Diodorus  calculates  their 
numbers  at  200,000.  Both  authors  agree  in  representing  the  king 
as  hastening  after  them  and  endeavoring  to  prevail  on  them  to 
return.  But  he  was  unsuccessful.  When  he  implored  them  not 
to  forsake  their  country  and  the  temples  of  their  gods,  their  wives 
and  their  children,  they  all  raised  a  shout,  and  clattering  with  their 
spears  upon  their  shields,  declared  that  while  they  were  men  and 
had  arms  in  their  hands,  they  should  never  want  a  country,  nor 
wives  and  children3.  According  to  Herodotus,  on  reaching  Ethi- 
opia they  gave  themselves  up  to  the  king,  and  he  being  in  hostility 

1  2  Kings  xviii.  17. 

2  " A^wroi/  evds  6iovra  rpifiKovra  erea  npo<TKaTr)jx£vos  enoXiopxee  is  to  ifriXe.  (2,  157.) 

3  Diod.  2,  67. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


329 


with  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants,  assigned  their  territory  to  the 
Egyptians  who  conquered  and  took  possession  of  it.  "  And  by 
their  settlement,"  says  the  historian,  "the  Ethiopians  became 
humanized,  learning  Egyptian  manners1." 

As  the  Romans  garrisoned  Elephantine  with  three  cohorts  only2, 
we  cannot  readily  believe  that  240,000  or  200,000  men  should 
have  been  distributed  through  three  frontier  towns  of  the  kingdom 
of  Psammitichus.  Neither  is  it  very  credible,  that,  separated  by 
600  miles,  as  those  at  Elephantine  were  from  their  comrades  at 
Marea  and  Pelusium,  they  should  have  concerted  a  revolt  which 
took  Psammitichus  so  much  by  surprise,  that  he  could  not  come 
up  with  the  deserters  till  they  had  passed  the  frontier  of  Ethiopia. 
Two  hundred  thousand  men  with  arms  in  their  hands,  aggrieved 
by  spoliation  and  indignity,  would  not  surely  have  withdrawn  so 
peaceably  from  their  country.  It  is  evident  that  Herodotus  and 
Diodorus  have  taken  some  old  traditionary  numbers  of  the  Egyp- 
tian militia  as  representing  their  force  in  the  reign  of  Psammitichus. 
The  fact  of  the  dissatisfaction  and  revolt  is  unquestionable,  but  we 
shall  probably  be  near  the  truth  if  we  suppose  that  it  was  only  the 
troops  in  garrison  on  the  Ethiopian  frontier  who  migrated.  The 
unobstructed  march  of  60,000  or  80,000  men  from  Marea  and 
Pelusium  to  Xubia  is  incredible ;  but  if  the  garrison  of  Elephantine 
mutinied  and  deserted,  owing  to  their  being  left  so  long  without 
relief,  it  might  well  happen  that  Psammitichus  could  not  overtake 
them  till  they  had  proceeded  far  on  their  way.  He  may  not  have 
been  much  displeased  that  the  most  turbulent  of  his  ancient  sol- 
diery had  withdrawn  so  quietly.  Peter  the  Great  and  Sultan 
Mahmoud  were  not  able  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  Strelitzes  and  the  Janissaries,  except  by  their  extermi- 
nation. 

1  Tovruv  61  iconcicdcvrcjv  is  rovi  Aidioiras  fifieptJTepoi  yzyovaai  A.iQi>-cs,  i]Qea 
fiaQovTCS  AiyvTTria.    (Her.  2,  30.) 

"  Sharpe,  Egypt  under  the  Romans,  p.  14. 


330 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  place  in  which  the  deserters  (Automoli)  settled  is  said  by- 
Herodotus  to  be  as  remote  from  Meroe,  as  Meroe  from  Elephantine, 
and  along  the  course  of  the  Nile1.  Now  fifty-six  days'  navigation 
up  the  Nile  from  Meroe  would  carry  us  very  far  beyond  every 
trace  of  that  Egyptian  civilization  which  Herodotus  declares  that 
the  Ethiopians  received  from  the  Egyptian  deserters.  In  fact  no 
such  traces  are  found  further  south  than  lat.  16°,  which  is  within 
the  limits  of  the  island  of  Meroe  itself.  The  king  of  the  Ethiopians 
by  whom  they  were  received,  and  who  gave  them  permission  to 
conquer  themselves  a  settlement  within  his  dominions,  was  proba- 
bly a  successor  of  Sabaco  and  Tirhakah,  having  his  capital,  not  at 
the  Meroe  of  later  geography,  but  at  Napata ;  nor  does  it  necessa- 
rily follow  that  they  proceeded  so  far  as  Napata  before  they 
received  his  commands.  Diodorus  says  they  took  possession  of 
some  of  the  best  land  in  Ethiopia  and  divided  it  among  them. 
Eratosthenes,  Strabo,  Pliny2,  all  mention  them,  but  with  such  vari- 
ations as  to  their  position,  that  it  is  evident  they  wrote  from  no 
certain  knowledge.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  Automoli  bore  the 
name  of  Asmach,  which  signifies  "  those  who  stand  on  the  left  hand 
of  the  king ;"  Diodorus  attributes  their  emigration  to  their  displea- 
sure at  being  posted  on  the  left  wing  in  an  expedition  into  Syria3 ; 
both  accounts  being  probably  etymological  conjectures,  founded  on 
the  circumstance  that  a  people  called  Euonymitse  (left),  of  Egyptian 
origin,  dwelt  between  Ethiopia  and  Egypt.  We  cannot  avoid  the 
suspicion  that  the  distance  of  the  country  to  which  they  emigrated, 
as  well  as  their  numbers,  has  been  greatly  exaggerated,  that  their 
real  settlement  was  near  the  Second  Cataract4,  and  that  they  were 

1  'Ato  ravrris  rrjs  no\tos  n  X  £  oi  v%  iv  iuto  %porw  aWco  n%as  is  rovg  AvrofioXovs,  iv 
ooioTTtp  i%  'JZ^ecpavTivris  ijAOcj  is  rlfv  [irj-po^oXiv  twc  A.idi6Trwv, 

2  Strab.  17,  786.  Plin.  6,  30.  1  Her.  2,  30.  Diod.  1,  67. 

4  Pliny,  on  the  authority  of  Xero's  exploratores,  places  the  Euonymitas  on 
the  frontier  of  Ethiopia  towards  Egypt,  between  the  Second  Cataract  and 
the  island  Gagaudes,  probably  Argo.    Agathemerus  places  them  on  the  west 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


331 


referred  to  a  region  far  south  of  Meroe,  not  because  any  traces  of 
Egyptian  civilization  were  found  there,  but  in  deference  to  the 
authority  of  Herodotus.  Those  from  whom  he  received  his  account 
had  made  no  better  estimate  of  the  difficulties  of  a  march  to  a 
country  fifty-six  days'  sail  south  of  Meroe,  than  those  who  repre- 
sented Darius  as  having  marched  from  the  Danube  to  the  Wolga ; 
and  the  historian  was  not  the  man  to  correct  such  tales  by  applying 
the  tests  of  time  and  space. 

Psammitichus,  relieved  by  the  departure  of  his  discontented 
troops,  applied  himself  more  diligently  to-  the  internal  arrange- 
ments of  his  kingdom,  the  collection  of  taxes,  and  the  cultivation 
of  friendly  relations  with  the  Greeks,  especially  the  Athenians. 
Egypt,  formerly  the  most  inhospitable  of  all  countries  towards 
strangers,  now  opened  all  her  harbors  to  them1.  The  king  caused 
his  own  sons  to  be  instructed  in  Greek  learning.  The  intercourse 
of  Sais  and  Athens  would  be  promoted  by  their  worship  of  the 
same  deity,  and  the  opinion  ultimately  sprung  up,  though  in  a 
much  later  age,  that  Cecrops  had  led  a  colony  from  Sais  to 
Athens2.  It  is  characteristic  of  a  time  when  there  was  a  great 
increase  of  intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  that  a  rivalry  in  anti- 
quity should  have  existed,  which  led  Psammitichus  to  make  his 
experiment  of  educating  two  new-born  children  apart  from  men, 
and  watching  to  what  language  their  first  vocal  utterance  would 

•or  left  bank  of  the  Nile,  above  the  Second  Cataract,  adding  the  name 
Sebridce  as  coming  next  to  them.  Stephanus  Byzantinus  says  they  are  an 
Egyptian  nation  on  the  borders  of  Ethiopia.  (Pliny,  6,  35.  Steph.  Byz.  s.  v. 
Eitoi/vfurui.  Agath.  Geog.  Min.  2,  5.  Msrd  rov  piyav  Karappmr^v  dird  piv 
ivujxwv  rovNeiXov  Evcovv/urai,  HePpiSm,  Kdroinoi'  Kal  npos  tt}  Meodj/  n/<r<w  Mepvoves' 

fied'  ovs  'EXefavTotyayoi  AiQioire;.)    The  Greeks  used  the  names  right  and  left 
as  we  do,  in  reference  to  the  course  of  a  river.    (See  Herod.  1,  72.  Eust. 
ad  Dion.  Perieg.  251.) 
1  Diod.  1,  67. 

a  Miiller  Hellenische  Stamme  und  Stadte,  1,  106. 


332 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


belong1.  Having  been  suckled  by  she-goats,  the  first  sound  they 
uttered  was  becos,  and  this  being  found  to  signify  bread  in  the 
Phrygian  language,  the  Egyptians  conceded  to  the  Phrygians  the 
honor  of  priority2.  Such  was  the  account  given  to  Herodotus  by 
the  priests  of  Memphis  of  the  first  attempt  made  to  apply  the 
evidence  of  language  to  decide  the  antiquity  of  nations.  We  may 
smile  at  the  experiment  and  the  inference  deduced  from  it,  but  till 
lately  philological  arguments  have  been  applied  to  historical  ques- 
tions with  not  much  more  discretion.  To  obtain  a  better  know- 
ledge of  Africa,  he  trained  youths  of  the  Ichthyophagi  to  explore 
the  fountains  of  the  Nile,  and  others  to  examine  the  Deserts  of 
Libya.  They  were  taught  to  endure  the  extremity  of  thirst,  but 
few  survived3. 

It  was  towards  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  that  Egypt  was 
threatened  by  an  invasion  of  the  Scythians.  Cyaxares,  king  of 
the  Medes,  having  defeated  the  Assyrians  in  a  great  battle,  was 
besieging  Nineveh,  when  his  own  kingdom  was  overrun  by  a 
horde  of  Scythians.  They  had  driven  the  Cimmerians  before 
them  and  entered  Media.  Cyaxares  encountered  them,  but  suffered 
an  entire  defeat,  and  for  twenty-eight  years  they  kept  possession 
of  western  Asia.  They  had  advanced  to  the  south  of  Ascalon  on 
the  coast  of  Palestine,  on  their  way  to  attack  Egypt,  when  Psam- 
mitichus  met  them,  and  by  entreaties  and  presents  prevailed  on 
them  to  proceed  no  further.  Some  of  them  on  their  return 
plundered  the  temple  of  Venus  Urania  at  Ascalon,  and  were 
punished  by  the  infliction  of  a  disease4,  which,  according  to  Hero- 

1  Her.  2,  4.  Schol.  Apoll.  Rhod.  4,  262.  Aristoph.  Nub.  397.  <3  ftSpt  vi 
teal  KpoJtav  Sgta*  Kal  /?  e  k  k  c  a-  IX  q  v  z .  The  Scholiast  there  refers  the  story 
to  Sesonchosis,  meaning  apparently  Sesostris,  the  world-conqueror.  (See 
p.  13«  of  this  vol.) 

2  Her.  1,  104.  9  Athen.  8,  p.  345. 

*  The  existence  of  a  peculiar  dfj\eia  vovaos  among  the  Scythians  is  certain, 
as  it  is  described  by  Hippocrates  de  Aer.  <fec.  p.  293.    Evvov^tat  ytvovrat,  *  * 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


333 


dotus,  accompanied  them  to  their  native  land,  and  even  cleaved 
to  their  descendants  in  his  own  time.  The  invasion  of  the  Scy- 
thians took  place  in  634  b.c.  ;  their  occupation  of  Palestine 
(according  to  Eusebius)  in  632  ;  their  march  towards  Egypt  some- 
where about  630  b.c.  They  must  have  passed  Azotus  on  their 
way,  and  interrupted  the  siege  of  that  place.  The  town  of  Beth- 
shan,  in  the  north  of  Palestine,  is  said  to  have  received  the  name 
of  Scythopolis1  from  their  having  made  it  their  head-quarters 
during  their  occupation  of  the  country.  The  prophet  Zephaniah 
(i.  14),  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Josiah  (630  b.c),  appears  to 
describe  them  under  the  appellation  of  "  a  people  without  fear2." 
The  desolation  which  they  would  cause  throughout  Palestine  is 
set  forth  by  the  prophet  in  very  forcible  language3 : — 

"That  day  is  a  day  of  wrath; 
A  day  of  distress  and  of  anguish ; 
A  day  of  desolation  and  of  destruction  ; 
A  day  of  darkness  and  of  gloom  ; 
A  day  of  clouds  and  of  thick  darkness ; 
A  day  of  the  trumpet  and  of  shouting 
Against  the  fenced  cities  and  against  the  high  towers." 

TJ^e  invasion  of  the  cities  of  the  Philistines  is  specifically  men- 
tioned : — 

"Surely  Gaza  shall  he  forsaken  and  Ascalon  a  desolation  ; 
Ashdod  shall  be  driven  out  at  noonday  and  Ekron  shall  be  rooted  up. 

yvvaiKtia  ipyugovrat  Kal  wj  at  ywaiKes  tSiaXiyivrai  re  biioi(->s,  KaXevvrat  re  ot  rotovrot 
dvavtAeis.  They  were  nevertheless  looked  on  with  reverence,  because  their 
disease  was  referred  to  the  immediate  power  of  the  divinity.  It  appears 
to  have  been  a  species  of  imbecility  allied  to  cretinism. 

1  Judges  i.  27,  in  the  Septuagint.    Batdadv  %  io-n  HxvOaiv  n6\is. 
1  Literally,  "the  people  that  turns  not  pale,"  CpDlD  fcO  1"D?1« 
*  'Em  fdv  vvv  <$at£>  kui  eiKoat  erea  ijp^ov  rijs  'Afftijf  oi  ^xvOai  Kal  ra  navra  eft 
vt6  -c  vfipios  Kal  6)tyu)ptris  dvaarara   iji/*   qpmigov  nepte\avvovrti  tovto  ort  ej(oiev 

Uaaroi.    (Herod.  1,  106.) 


334 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  sea-coast  shall  be  dwellings  for  shepherds  and  folds  for  flocks/' 
(v.  5,  6.) 

The  prophet  anticipates  that  the  flood  of  invasion  would  roll 
forward  even  to  Ethiopia  (v.  12),  as  no  doubt  it  would  have  done, 
but  for  the  gifts  and  supplications  by  which  Psammitichus  induced 
the  Scythians  to  return.  Yet  it  is  intimated  also  that  their  suc- 
cess should  be  short-lived  and  be  followed  by  a  great  reverse : — 

"Gather  yourselves  together  and  assemble,  0  nation  that  feareth  not; 
Before  the  decree  bring  forth,  that  your  day  pass  away  as  chaff ; 
Before  the  hot  anger  of  Jehovah  come  upon  you."    (ii.  1.) 

This  also  corresponds  with  history.  The  Scythians  were  enervated 
by  a  residence  in  a  southern  climate,  and  overpowered  by  Cyaxares 
and  the  Medes.  The  capture  of  Nineveh,  foretold  by  the  prophet 
(Zeph.  ii.  13),  speedily  followed  the  recovery  of  Median  ascen- 
dency1. A  few  years  later  the  northern  nomad  tribes2  appear  to 
have  meditated  another  and  combined  invasion  of  the  South,  in 
which  they  were  to  have  been  joined  by  Persia,  Ethiopia  and 
Libya3 ;  its  defeat  was  foretold,  but  from  some  cause  which  history 
has  not  explained,  it  never  took  place.  The  prophecy  stands 
insulated  among  the  oracles  of  Ezekiel,  and  may  have  been  delivered 
when  the  great  power  of  Nebuchadnezzar  had  alarmed  the  neigh- 
boring nations  both  north  and  south. 

The  lists  represent  Psammitichus  as  reigning  fifty-four  years, 
and  Herodotus  agrees  with  them  :  among  the  papyri  of  Turin, 

1  Herod.  1,  106. 

*  Ezek.  xxxviii.  "  Gog,  of  the  land  of  Magog,  Rhos"  (the  nations  dwell- 
in:  on  the  Araxes),  "Mesech  and  Tubal"  (the  Moschi  and  Tibareni), 
"Gomer"  (the  Cimmerians),  "Togarmah"  (the  Armenians). 

1  Ez.  xxxviii.  5.  xxxix.  1.  "Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold  I  am  against 
thee,  O  Gog,  the  chief  prince  of  Meshech  and  Tubal,  and  I  will  turn  thee 
back  and  leave  but  the  sixth  part  of  thee." 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


335 


Lepsius  has  found  the  date  of  his  forty-fifth  year1.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded (616  b.c)  by  his  son  Neco  or  Nechao,  the  Pharaoh  Necho  of 
the  Second  Book  of  Kings.  His  first  undertakings,  according  to 
Herodotus,  were  peaceful.  To  construct  a  canal  which  should  join 
the  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea,  and  save  the  troublesome  transport  by 
land  across  the  Desert,  was  a  project  which  would  naturally  suggest 
itself  to  the  mind  of  a  king  of  Egypt,  where  stupendous  works  of 
the  same  kind  existed  in  the  Fyoum  and  the  Delta2.  We  have 
noticed  the  tradition  that  it  had  been  begun  by  Sesostris3.  During 
the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  this  district  was  carefully  explored 
and  the  ancient  line  of  the  canal  traced.  It  went  off  from  the 
Nile  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  modern  town  of  Belbeis,  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  Bubastis  Agria  of  the  Greeks4,  and  ran 
eastward  through  a  natural  valley,  the  Goshen  of  Jewish  history, 
till  it  reached  the  Bitter  Lakes,  which  derive  their  quality  from  the 
saline  impregnations  of  the  Desert.  The  influx  of  the  water  of  the 
Nile  rendered  them  sweet,  and  they  abounded  in  fish  and  aquatic 
birds5.  Issuing  from  these  it  pursued  a  southerly  course  to  Suez. 
Towards  the  western  end  its  traces  are  very  visible,  notwithstand- 
ing the  deposit  of  the  Nile,  which  has  partly  filled  it  up ;  towards 
the  East,  where  the  influence  of  the  Desert  is  more  powerful,  it  has 
nearly  disappeared.  At  the  junction  of  the  Red  Sea,  remains  of 
masonry  are  visible,  but  they  are  probably  no  older  than  the  time 
of  Ptolemy  II.  Neco  is  said  to  have  sacrificed  the  lives  of  120,000 
men6  in  the  attempt  to  excavate  this  canal,  which  after  all  he  left 
imperfect,  being  warned,  it  is  said,  by  an  oracle,  that  he  was  only 

1  Bunsen,  JEgyptens  Stelle,  B.  3,  p.  144. 

1  Diodorus  (1,  68)  omits  the  reigns  of  Xeco  and  Psamrais,  and  passes 
{vortpov  TtTTapci  ytvtais)  to  that  of  Apries.  He  mentions  Neco,  however, 
incidentally  (1,  33)  as  the  author  of  the  canal. 

•  See  page  245  of  this  vol. 

•  -Champollion,  L'Egypte  sons  les  Pharaons,  2,  56. 

•  Strabo,  17,  p.  804.  6  Her.  2,  168. 


336 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


laboring  beforehand  for  trie  benefit  of  the  barbarian1.  Darius 
resumed  the  work,  and  according  to  the  description  of  Herodotus, 
made  it  of  sufficient  width  to  admit  two  triremes  rowed  abreast2. 
His  language  leaves  no  doubt  that  in  his  time  it  reached  the  sea3, 
though  Diodorus4  says  that  Darius  left  it  unfinished,  because  he 
was  informed  that  it  would  inundate  Egypt  with  the  water  of  the 
Red  Sea.  Since  the  French  occupation  of  Egypt  it  has  been  taken 
for  granted,  on  the  authority  of  their  engineers,  that  the  average 
height  of  the  sea  at  Suez  exceeds  by  twenty-seven  feet  that  of  the 
Mediterranean.  Subsequent  levellings  have  thrown  doubt  on  this 
fact,  which  contradicts  the  laws  of  hydrostatics.  The  fear  seems 
to  have  been,  that  the  water  of  the  canal  and  the  Bitter  Lakes, 
which  the  Nile  had  freshened,  should  be  made  salt  by  the  tides6. 
Ptolemy  completed  the  canal  and  constructed  a  flood-gate,  which 
excluded  the  sea-water,  except  during  the  time  of  the  passage  of  a 
vessel6.  The  object  of  Neco  in  attempting  to  establish  a  communi- 
cation with  the  Red  Sea,  was  to  facilitate  his  design  of  creating  a 
fleet  there ;  and  this  he  accomplished,  although  his  canal  was 
never  completed.  His  alliance  with  the  Phoenicians,  who  were  at 
this  time  at  the  height  of  their  naval  power,  would  furnish  him 
with  materials  for  ship-building,  which  being  brought  up  the  Nile, 
and  along  the  canal,  as  far  as  it  was  finished,  might  then  be  trans- 
ported to  the  sea.  The  docks  which  he  constructed  for  the  recep- 
tion of  his  ships  were  still  to  be  seen  in  the  days  of  Herodotus. 

1  Herodotus  (4,  42)  repeats  his  assertion  of  Neco's  having  left  the  canal 
unfinished ;  a  similar  motive  is  said  to  have  rendered  Mohammed  Ali 
averse  from  the  re-establishment  of  this  canal.  The  Caliphs  had  closed  it 
for  this  reason. 

8  Pliny,  describing  it  after  its  completion  by  Ptolemy,  says  100  feet  wide, 
40  deep  (N.  H.  6,  33).    The  whole  length  is  about  90  miles. 

3  'E(T£^£i  is  riiv  'JZpvdpriv  da^aaaav  (2,  158).  *  1,  33. 

*  The  rise  of  the  tide  at  Suez  is  six  or  seven  feet.  Report  onSteam  Navi- 
gation to  India,  App.  p.  23.  6  Diod.  1,  38. 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


337 


From  this  point  began  the  voyage  which,  at  the  command  of  Neco, 
the  Phoenicians  undertook  for  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa. 
Herodotus  gives  the  following  account  of  it1 : 

"  I  am  astonished  at  those  who  divided  and  fixed  the  boundaries 
of  Libya,  Asia  aud  Europe,  seeing  they  differ  in  no  small  degree. 
For  Europe  stretches  in  length  far  beyond  them  both,  and  as  to 
width  it  does  not  appear  to  deserve  a  comparison2.  For  as  to  Libya 
it  shows  itself  to  be  circumnavigable,  except  where  it  borders  on 
Asia ;  this  was  first  proved,  as  far  as  I  know,  by  Neco,  king  of 
Egypt.  When  he  gave  up  excavating  the  canal  that  runs  from  the 
Nile  to  the  Arabian  Gulf,  he  sent  out  some  Phoenicians  in  ships, 
giving  them  orders  on  their  way  back  to  sail  through  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules  into  the  Northern  Sea,  and  thus  return  to  Egypt. 
Setting  out  then  from  the  Red  Sea,  they  sailed  on  the  Southern  Sea. 
As  often  as  autumn  returned  they  landed  and  sowed  the  ground 
in  the  part  of  Libya  where  they  chanced  to  be,  and  awaited  the 
harvest ;  and  then  sailed  again  when  they  had  reaped  it.  So  two 
years  having  elapsed,  in  the  third,  doubling  the  Pillars  of  Hercules, 
thev  came  back  to  Egypt.  And  they  said,  what  to  me  is  not 
credible,  but  may  be  to  some  one  else,  that  in  sailing  round  Libya 
thev  had  the  sun  on  the  right  hand.  In  this  way  Libya  was  first 
known.  The  Carthaginians  are  the  next  who  affirm  it  [to  be  cir- 
cumnavigable] ;  for  Sataspes,  the  son  of  Teaspis,  did  not  circum- 
navigate Libya,  though  sent  out  for  this  very  purpose,  but  turned 
back,  fearing  the  length  and  the  dreariness  of  the  navigation." 

It  is  remarkable  that  Herodotus  does  not  express  the  smallest 
doubt  respecting  the  reality  of  this  circumnavigation  ;  that  the 

1  4,  42. 

2  Herodotus  reckoned  as  a  prolongation  of  Europe  what  we  call  Northern 
Asia,  and  as  it  had  never  been  circumnavigated,  its  breadth  from  south  to 
north  was  unknown,  but  was  evidently  supposed  by  him  to  surpass  that  of 
Asia,  as  he  was  not  aware  of  the  great  extension  of  the  peninsula  of  India. 
See  3,  45. 

VOL.  ii.  15 


338 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


Carthaginians  confirmed  the  testimony  of  the  Phoenicians,  all 
whose  naval  and  geographical  knowledge  they  would  share ;  and 
that  in  the  age  of  Xerxes,  Setaspes  was  sent  out,  not  to  try  if 
Africa  could  be  circumnavigated,  but  to  perform  its  circumnaviga- 
tion, as  an  admitted  possibility.  Whether  the  Ophir  of  the  Book 
of  Kings  were  a  port  in  India,  or  Sofala  on  the  S.  E.  coast  of 
Africa,  it  is  evident  that  the  ships  of  the  Phoenicians  had  for  several 
centuries  been  accustomed  to  distant  voyages — voyages  even  of 
three  years'  duration,  according  to  the  Book  of  Chronicles1.  Their 
ships  were  large,  and  so  arranged  internally  as  to  give  the  greatest 
stowage  in  the  smallest  space2.  Major  Rennell's  researches  have 
shown,  that  the  circumnavigation  might  be  much  more  easily 
accomplished  from  the  eastern  side  of  Africa  than  the  western3, 
and  that  consequently  the  failure  of  Setaspes,  who  tried  it  from  the 
west,  and  the  slow  progress  of  the  Portuguese  in  reaching  the 
Cape,  afford  no  ground  for  calling  in  question  the  truth  of  Hero- 
dotus' account.  The  time  of  three  years,  however,  must  appear 
inadequate,  when  we  consider  that  Scylax  occupied  two  years  and 
ten  months  in  his  voyage  from  Caspatyrus  on  the  Indus  to  Suez4. 

It  may  appear  extraordinary,  that  if  the  fact  that  Africa  was  a 
peninsula  had  once  been  ascertained,  it  should  have  been  virtually 
denied  by  Plato6,  and  expressly  by  Ephorus8,  and  doubted  by 

1  2  Chron.  ix.  21,  which  may  be  admitted  as  an  evidence  for  the  age  in 
which  this  book  was  written,  if  not  for  the  age  of  Solomon. 

*  n\eT(TTa  VKevr)  iv  fjiKpuraro)  ayyei'.)  fnaKf^Mpiaixiva  iOcatrafi^v.  Xen.  OEcon. 
c.  8,  speaking  of  the  Phoenician  vessels  that  resorted  to  the  Piraeus. 

3  Geog.  of  Herod.  Sect.  xxiv.  4  Her.  4,  44. 

6  In  the  age  of  Plato,  the  Atlantic  was  believed  to  be  incapable  of  navi- 
gation, owing  to  the  mud  produced  by  the  sunk  island  Atlantis.  (Tim.  §  6, 
iii.  25.)  If  the  Atlantic  was  not  navigable,  Africa  of  course  could  not  be 
circumnavigable. 

8  Plin.  N.  H.  6,  31.  Ephorus  auctor  est  a  Rubro  mari  navigantes  in  insu- 
lam  Cernen  non  posse  provehi. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


339 


Polybius1,  who  had  himself  visited  the  western  coast,  in  a  fleet 
fitted  out  to  explore  the  traces  of  the  Carthaginian  settlements. 
The  art  of  navigation,  however,  had  greatly  declined  among  the 
nations  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean,  between  the  times  of 
Ephorus  and  Polybius,  and  that  in  which  Phoenicia  flourished  :  the 
voyages  made  from  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies  were  directed  in 
the  profitable  channel  of  Indian  commerce.  He  might  therefore 
well  speak  of  that  as  doubtful,  of  which  the  evidence  was  four  cen- 
turies and  a  half  old,  and  which  had  not  been  confirmed  by  subse- 
quent voyages.  Strabo  appears  to  have  entertained  no  doubt  that 
Africa  terminated  in  a  southern  cape,  though  he  conceived  most 
erroneously  of  its  form,  believing  the  eastern  coast  to  form  a  right 
angle  with  the  northern,  and  the  western  to  be  the  hypothenuse  of 
the  triangle2.  He  did  not,  however,  believe  in  the  circumnaviga- 
tion. In  speaking  of  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  he  says  that  no 
one  had  advanced  more  than  5000  stadia  beyond  the  entrance  of 
the  Red  Sea3 ;  and,  having  perhaps  Ephorus  in  his  mind,  that  those 
who  had  coasted  Libya  where  it  is  washed  by  the  ocean,  whether 
they  had  set  out  from  the  Pillars  or  from  the  Red  Sea,  had  turned 
back  after  proceeding  a  certain  distance,  whence  many  thought  that 
an  isthmus  interposed4.  Such  an  isthmus  Ptolemy  lays  down, 
stretching  away  from  the  coast  of  Africa  south  of  the  Equator,  to 
the  eastern  verge  of  the  world.  It  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  any 
decisive  conclusion  respecting  this  celebrated  voyage5,  the  reality 

1  Oi'<Jcij  ^x.£t  ^^Yetv  drpsKros,  cots  T&v  Ka9'  njias  r<up<5r,  -ortpov  n-t  on;  icn  Kara  to 
avve^is  ra  rroos  ttjv  ptvnp.'ipiav  ?;  flaXarrj;  r;zo:z  \z-a\     (3,  38.  Plin.  X.  H.  5,  1.) 

9  17,  p.  825.         *  16,  p.  769,  from  Eratosthenes.  4  Strabo,  1,  p.  32. 

6  The  Phoenicians  alleged  that  in  their  voyage  round  Africa  they  had  the 
sun  on  their  right  hand,  that  is  in  the  North  (Plut.  Is.  et  Osir.  p.  363),  which 
only  proves  at  most  that  they  had  passed  the  Equator.  Long  indeed  before 
reaching  the  Equator,  navigators,  whose  home  was  to  the  Xorth  of  the 
tropic  of  Cancer,  must  have  been  struck  with  seeing  the  sun  in  the  summer 
far  to  the  north  of  them  at  noon. 


340 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  which  rests  on  the  strong  conviction  of  Herodotus,  an  author,  in 
such  matters  at  least,  not  prone  to  credulity  ;  and  as  at  all  events 
it  was  not  repeated,  if  real  it  had  no  influence,  like  the  voyages  of 
De  Gama  and  Columbus,  on  the  subsequent  history  of  the  world. 

"When  Neco  abandoned  his  plan  of  joining  the  Nile  and  the 
Red  Sea  by  a  canal,  he  engaged,"  says  Herodotus,  "  in  military 
expeditions,  and  encountering  the  Syrians  with  a  land  force,  he 
conquered  them  at  Magdolus,  and  after  the  battle  took  Cadytis, 
which  is  a  large  city  of  Syria1."  Since  the  death  of  Sennacherib, 
Assyria  and  Babylon  had  existed  as  two  independent  kingdoms,  of 
which  Assyria  was  manifestly  on  the  decline,  while  Babylon  was  in 
the  ascendant.  The  fate  of  Assyria,  threatened  by  the  Medes,  had 
been  delayed  by  the  invasion  of  the  Scythians,  who  had  still  kept 
possession  of  their  conquests  in  Asia,  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign 
of  Neco.  On  their  expulsion  (C08  b.  c.)  Cyaxares  resumed  his 
enterprise  against  Nineveh  ;  and  about  the  same  time  Neco  left  his 
kingdom  to  march  to  the  Euphrates2.  He  seems  to  have  employed 
his  fleet  on  the  Mediterranean  to  transport  his  army  to  some  harbor 
in  the  north  of  Palestine,  and  was  thence  proceeding  inland 
towards  Caivhemish.  Josiah,  who  was  king  of  Judah,  and  held 
also  the  ancient  territories  of  Israel3,  induced  perhaps  by  the  Assy- 
rians, endeavored  to  stop  the  march  of  Neco,  with  the  whole  force 
of  his  kingdom.  He  would  gladly  have  passed  on  to  the  Euphra- 
tes unmolested,  and  earnestly  entreated  Josiah  to  abstain  from 
interrupting  him ;  but  Josiah  was  not  to  be  dissuaded,  and  they 
met  in  battle  at  Megiddo4  in  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  near  the  foot 

1  2,  159. 

2  2  Kings  xxiii.  29.  "  In  the  days  of  Josiah,  Pharaoh  Necho,  king  of 
Egypt,  went  up  against  the  king  of  Assyria  to  the  river  Euphrates."  Jose- 
phus  says  (Ant.  10,  5),  "against  the  Medes  and  Babylonians,  who  had  over- 
thrown the  power  of  Assyria." 

3  2  Kings  xxiii.  19.    2  Chron.  xxxiv.  6. 

4  Hup  o(ff «  b  NtKoK  cru/i/iuX  ov  iv  May«5uA'.)  £i  i'vjjts  (Her.  2,  159).  A.prairav6s 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


341 


of  Carmel1.  Josiah  had  disguised  himself  before  the  battle2,  that 
the  royal  insignia  might  not  make  him  a  mark  for  the  enemy ; 
but  an  arrow  reached  him  ;  he  was  brought  back  to  Jerusalem  and 
died  there.  This  battle  delayed  the  march  of  Xeco;  he  took  pos- 
session of  Jerusalem,  the  Cadytis  of  Herodotus3,  and  advanced  as 
far  as  Riblah  in  Hamath  on  his  way  to  the  Euphrates.  The  people 
of  Judaea,  however,  made  Jehoahaz,  the  son  of  Josiah,  king.  Neco 
sent  for  him  to  Hamath,  deposed  and  imprisoned  him  after  he  had 
reigned  three  months,  and  sent  him  to  Egypt,  where  he  ended  his 
days4.  At  the  same  time  he  made  his  younger  brother  Eliakim 
king,  changed  his  name  to  Jehoiakim,  and  imposed  a  tribute  of  a 
hundred  talents  of  silver  and  a  talent  of  gold  upon  the  land5. 
Whether  Neco  himself  returned  to  Egypt,  or  remained  in  Palestine 
to  secure  his  power  there,  we  are  not  informed  ;  but  four  years  later 
he  marched  to  the  Euphrates  with  an  army,  comprehending,  accord- 
ing to  the  prophet  Jeremiah6,  Ethiopians  and  Libyans  as  well  as 
Egyptians7.    Carchemish,  or  Circesium,  where  the  battle  took  place 

fr/ai  rovs  'IvvSa'iovs  dvofia^ccOai  'E p fiiovd.  (Euseb.  Pra?p.  Ev.  9,  IS.)  This  is 
probably  Jl^'Tp-l^l^  Arami  Jehudeh,  Syrians  of  Judah.    Deut  xxvi.  5, 

"A  Syrian  ready  to  perish  was  my  father."    Her.  2,  104. 

1  Reland,  Pahcst.  893.  2  2  Chron.  xxxv.  22. 

8  The  name  seems  to  mean  "  the  Holy"  city.  From  a  comparison  of  the 
passages  in  Herodotus,  2,  159;  3,  5,  it  appears  that  no  other  place  than 
Jerusalem  can  be  meant  Herodotus  would  not  have  compared  Gaza  or 
Kadesh-Barnea  with  Sardis.  Jerusalem  had  been  known  as  the  seat  of  a 
magnificent  temple  for  several  centuries,  and  had  enjoyed  a  reputation  for 
sanctity  in  much  earlier  times.    See  Gen.  xiv.  18. 

*  He  is  the  same  who,  in  Jer.  xxii.  11,  is  called  Shallum,  and  of  whom  the 
prophet  declares  that  he  should  never  return  to  his  own  land.  Comp. 
Ezek.  xix.  4. 

6  2  Chron.  xxxvL  3.  6  Jer.  xlvL 

T  Such  was  the  tediousness  of  ancient  sieges,  that  he  might  have  been 
engaged  in  operations  before  Circesium  during  the  interval,  but  the  lan- 
guage of  the  prophet  seems  to  indicate  a  recent  invasion.    Jer.  xlvi  8: — 


342 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


in  which  he  was  defeated  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  stood  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Euphrates,  in  the  angle,  or  as  the  ancients  said,  the 
island,  formed  by  its  confidence  with  the  Chaboras,  which  gathers 
the  waters  of  northern  Mesopotamia  and  discharges  them  into  the 
Euphrates  nearly  in  N.  lat.  35°.  It  lies  in  the  line  of  march  of  an 
army  proceeding  from  the  north  of  Palestine  to  northern  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  Neco  was  on  his  march  to  occupy  it,  when  intercepted 
by  Josiah1.  If  Nineveh  still  held  out  against  the  forces  of  Cyax- 
ares  and  the  Babylonians,  the  object  of  Neco's  march  might  be  to 
relieve  that  city ;  if,  as  seems  more  probable,  it  had  already 
fallen2,  he  may  have  deemed  it  politic  to  anticipate  the  hostilities 
which  he  could  not  but  foresee,  on  the  part  of  the  power  which 
had  thus  become  predominant  in  Asia.  Carchemish  was  an 
important  military  position.  The  Euphrates,  in  this  part  of  its 
course,  is  fordable  both  above  and  below  the  influx  of  the  Cha- 
boras3, and  by  the  possession  of  Carchemish  its  passage  might  be 
impeded.  When  Diocletian  was  strengthening  the  frontier  posts 
of  the  Empire  in  the  East,  against  the  inroads  of  the  Parthians  into 
Syria,  he  erected  a  strong  fortress  at  Carchemish,  which  Trocopius 
calls  the  most  remote  garrison  of  the  Romans4.    In  the  times  of 

"  Egypt  riseth  up  like  a  flood, 
And  his  waters  are  moved  like  the  rivers ; 
And  he  saith,  I  will  go  up  and  cover  the  earth  ; 
I  will  destroy  the  city  and  the  inhabitants  thereof." 
1  2  Chron.  xxxv.  20. 

a  The  capture  of  Nineveh  is  usually  placed,  but  not  on  very  certain 
grounds,  in  606  b.  c.  ;  the  first  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  which  was  that  of 
the  battle  of  Carchemish  (Jer.  xlvi.  1),  on  the  authority  of  Ptolemy's  Canon, 
in  604. 

8  See  Col.  Chesney's  Map  in  Pari.  Report  on  Steam  Navigation  to  India. 

4  Cercusium  munimentum  tutissimum  et  fabre  politum:  cujus  moenia 
Abora  et  Euphrates  ambiunt  flumina,  velut  spatium  insulare  fingentes. 
Quod  Diocletianus  exiguum  antehac  et  suspectum  ruurls  turribusque  circum- 
dedit  celsis.    (Ammian.  Marc.  23,  5.) 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


343 


Grecian  and  Roman  power  it  appears  to  have  been  a  place  of  little 
strength,  but  it  would  be  otherwise  when  Egypt  and  Assyria  con- 
tended on  the  Euphrates.  This  is  implied  in  the  boast  of  the  king 
of  Assyria  (Is.  x.  9),  "  Is  not  Calno  as  Carchemish — is  not  Samaria 
as  Damascus  ?"  and  the  name  itself  indicates  the  existence  of  a 
fortification1. 

We  have  no  further  account  of  the  battle  of.  Carchemish  than 
that  of  the  prophet,  that  Nebuchadnezzar  "smote  the  army  of 
Neco ;"  Herodotus  makes  no  mention  of  it.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  its  effect  was  to  strip  Neco  of  nearly  the  whole  of  his 
Asiatic  possessions.  "The  king  of  Egypt  came  not  again  any 
more  out  of  his  land ;  for  the  king  of  Babylon  had  taken  from  the 
river  of  Egypt  unto  the  river  Euphrates  all  that  pertained  to  the 
king  of  Egypt2."  An  immediate  invasion  by  Nebuchadnezzar 
seemed  impending  over  Egypt  as  the  result  of  this  defeat3.  Accord- 
ing to  Berosus4,  Neco  himself,  whom  he  calls  the  revolted  satrap 
of  Egypt  and  Syria,  fell  into  the  hands  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  who 
was  not  at  this  time  king  of  Babylon,  but  viceroy  of  his  father 
Nabopolassar.  But  it  would  neither  accord  with  Scriptural  nor 
Egyptian  history  to  suppose  that  Babylon  had  previously  to  this 
time  conquered  Egypt  and  reduced  its  king  to  the  condition  of  a 
satrap.  Doubtless  Neco  returned  to  his  kingdom  as  Herodotus 
implies.  It  marks  the  ascendency  of  Greek  ideas,  that  on  his 
return  from  Syria,  either  now  or  after  the  battle  of  Megiddo,  he 
dedicated  the  dress  which  he  had  worn  to  Apollo  of  Branchidae,  a 
celebrated  oracle  in  the  territory  of  his  Milesian  allies5.  Herodotus 

1  Karalca  in  Syriae  is  a  castle.    See  Cleric,  ad  2  Chron.  xxxv. 
3  2  Kings  xxiv.  7. 

3  That  Jer.  xlvi.  13  belongs  to  this  time,  not  to  the  period  following  the 
captivity  of  Zedekiah,  is  evident  from  v.  15,  16,  which  speaks  of  a  recent 
grent  defeat 

*  Joseph,  contra  Apion.  1,  19. 

6  Ilerod.  2,  159.    Strabo,  634.    A  lion  is  still  found  among  the  ruins  of 


2U 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


says,  he  reigned  sixteen  years ;  the  lists  only  six,  a  term  evidently 
too  short  for  the  undertakings  recorded  of  him.  That  the  number 
in  Herodotus  is  correct  is  proved  by  a  remarkable  monument  in 
the  Museum  at  Florence,  published  by  Rosellini1.  It  records  that 
Psammitichus,  a  priest  of  Sokari,  was  born  on  the  first  of  the 
month  Paoni*,  in  the  reign  of  Neco — that  he  lived  seventy-one 
years,  four  months,  six  days,  and  died  on  the  sixth  day  of  the 
month  Paopi*,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  Amasis.  If  we  allow 
that  the  authors  of  the  lists  in  extracting  from  Manetho  have 
given  us  round  numbers,  instead  of  the  exact  sum  in  months  and 
days  which  they  fouud  in  the  original,  the  correspondence  will  be 
complete4. 

Neco  was  succeeded  (600  b.c.)  by  his  son  Psammitichus  II., 
whom  Herodotus  calls  Psammis.  The  record  of  Manetho  in  Afri- 
canus  is  evidently  imperfect ;  Psammuthis  is  called  the  Second, 
though  no  other  of  the  name  has  been  mentioned,  and  therefore 
we  should  read,  with  the  aid  of  Eusebius,  "Psammuthis,  who  is 
also  Psammitichus  the  Second."    His  phonetic  name  is  spelt  with 

Palot  (the  ancient  Miletus),  which  is  said  to  be  of  Egyptian  style,  and  may 
he  the  record  of  the  connexion  between  Miletus  and  Egypt.  (Chandler's 
Travels,  p.  170.    Miiller's  Dorier,  1,  225.) 

1  Mon.  Stor.  2,  151 ;  more  accurately  4,  197. 

8  The  tenth  month  of  the  Egyptian  year.    See  vol.  i.  p.  277. 

8  The  second  month. 

4  The  reckoning  will  stand  thus,  supposing  Neco  to  have  reigned  sixteen 
years,  and  the  priest  to  have  been  born  when  he  had  reigned  2  years 
9  months  and  1  day : — 

Eesidue  of  his  reign  13  years  3  months. 

Psammis  or  Psammitichus  II.  .    .      6  years. 

Apries  19  years. 

Amasis,  to  the  death  of  the  priest    34  years  1  month  6  days. 

72  years  4  months  6  days. 
The  excess  of  one  year  is  accounted  for  by  Bunsen  (B.  3,  p.  143)  by  the 
supposition  that  the  fractions  of  years  have  been  reckoned  as  full  years. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


345 


precisely  the  same  characters  as  those  of  his  grandfather,  but  the 
titular  shield  has  a  difference  in  the  middle  character.  Xo  public 
building  remains  erected  by  him,  nor  is  any  large  work  of  art 
extant  of  his  reign.  Fragments  of  sculpture,  however,  bearing  his 
name,  exist  in  the  citadel  at  Cairo,  and  under  the  base  of  the 
column  called  Pompey's  Pillar  at  Alexandria.  The  former  of 
these  appears  to  have  made  a  part  of  some  erection  in  honor  of  the 
god  Ptah  at  Memphis  ;  the  latter  probably  belonged  to  some 
building  at  Sais.  His  titular  shield  is  also  found  on  the  obelisk 
of  the  Piazza  Minerva  at  Rome,  which  was  executed  under  his  son 
and  successor  Apries1.  The  British  Museum  contains  a  portion  of 
an  intercolumnial  plinth  inscribed  with  his  name  and  titular 
shield,  in  which  he  appears  offering  to  the  gods,  who  give  him  all 
power  and  victory,  and  put  all  lands  under  his  sandals2.  He  had 
a  daughter,  whose  name  was  Xitocris,  the  same  as  that  of  the 
queen  of  Psammitichus  the  First,  and  derived  from  Xeith,  the 
tutelary  goddess  of  Sais. 

Herodotus  mentions  a  single  anecdote  of  the  reign  of  Psammis, 
which  is  not  otherwise  important  than  as  indicating  the  reputation 
which  Egypt  enjoyed  among  the  Greeks  for  wisdom  and  equity. 
The  inhabitants  of  Elis,  to  whom  the  administration  of  the  Olym- 
pic games  belonged,  were  accustomed  to  consult  the  oracle  of 
Jupiter  at  Ammonium  :  inscriptions  remained  there  recording  the 
names  of  the  delegates  and  the  answers  which  they  had  received ; 
and  libations  were  offered  at  Elis  to  the  Ammonian  gods,  Jupiter 
and  Juno,  and  Mercury  who  presided  over  games3.  Exercising 
the  delicate  function  of  judges  between  Greek  competitors,  they 
would  naturally  seek  to  arm  themselves  with  the  authority  which 
this  ancient  and  venerated  oracle  conferred.    To  ascend  the  Xile 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  4,  198.    2,  136. 

a  Birch,  Gall,  of  Brit  Mus.  P.  2,  p.  109. 

3  Pausan.  Eliaca,  5,  15.    Mercury  was  surnamed  Ilapa/i/icjv. 

15* 


316 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


to  Terenuthis  on  the  Canopic  branch  below  Memphis  and  cross 
the  valley  of  the  Natron  Lakes,  was  an  easier  way  of  reaching 
Ammonium  than  from  the  sea-coast,  provided  Egypt  were 
friendly1.  In  going  or  returning,  the  delegates  from  Elis  had  an 
audience  of  Psammitichus,  and  boasted  to  him  of  the  perfect 
equity  with  which  they  made  their  decisions.  If  we  may  believe 
Herodotus,  they  had  come  for  the  sole  purpose  of  inquiring  if  the 
Egyptians,  the  wisest  of  men,  could  devise  any  better  method  of 
securing  impartiality.  The  king  summoned  those  who  were 
reputed  wisest  among  them,  and  they  having  heard  their  state- 
ment, asked  if  Eleans  were  allowed  to  contend  in  the  games  as 
well  as  other  Greeks.  The  Eleans  replied  that  they  were.  Then 
said  the  Egyptians,  "  Your  method  is  entirely  unjust ;  it  is  impos- 
sible that  you  should  not  be  biassed  in  favor  of  one  of  your  own 
people ;  and  if  you  have  really  come  to  Egypt  desirous  of  attain- 
ing to  perfect  equity,  you  must  henceforth  exclude  every  Elean 
from  the  contest."  Diodorus  with  more  probability  refers  the 
story  to  the  reign  of  Amasis,  and  attributes  the  advice  (which  was 
not  followed)  to  the  king  himself2. 

Towards  the  end  of  his  reign,  Psammitichus  II.  made  an  expe- 
dition kito  Ethiopia,  of  which  Herodotus3  does  not  mention  either 
the  purpose  or  the  result.  His  shield  is  found  at  the  island  of 
Snem,  near  the  Cataracts  of  Syene.  The  Greek  inscription  on  the 
statue  of  Aboosimbel,  which  mentions  a  visit  of  Psammitichus  to 
Elephantine,  may  be  of  this  date.    It  is  in  the  Doric  dialect4, 

1  Alexander  went  by  Para?tonium  and  the  coast,  but  found  the  difficulties 
so  great  that  he  returned  by  the  Natron  Lakes.  Arrian,  3,  4.  See  also 
Minutoli's  Travels. 

a  Diod.  1,  05.  8  2,  161. 

4  The  inscription  is  as  follows: — BaoiXcos  t\Qovros  cs  K\c<pavnvap  ^Vafiart^o 
ravra  eypaipav  rot  ovv  "^fa^ari^oi  roi  QcokXos  enXeov'  r]\6ov  6c  JZcpKios  KaOoircpOcv  is 
o  (ets  ov)  wora/ioj  avir)'  a\oy\o<ros  (aXXoyAwo-o-oj)    *****    Aiyvtrnos  6c  A^iaais 

eypatpc  A  ^iupoj  A^0l^'X°  Kai  IlcXe^j  Oidu^o.    (Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lit.  1,  223.) 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


347 


which  we  should  hardly  expect  to  be  in  use  among  the  Ionian 
mercenaries  of  the  first  Psaramitichus  ;  but  as  Egypt  had  now- 
been  fully  opened  to  the  Greeks  for  half  a  century,  every  variety 
of  dialect  might  be  found  among  them,  though  Ionians  formed 
the  great  body  of  the  mercenary  troops1.  If  it  should  still  be 
thought  improbable  that  a  Greek  inscription  should  be  found  in 
Egypt  exceeding  in  age  any  in  Ionia  or  Greece  itself,  there  was  a 
third  Psammitichus2,  who  lived  about  400  B.C.,  a  descendant  of 
the  ancient  kings  of  that  name,,  to  whose  reign  it  may  be 
referred. 

Psammitichus  II.  died  almost  immediately  after  his  expedition 
to  Ethiopia,  and  was  succeeded  (594  b.c.)  by  Uaphris,  as  the 
lists  write  his  name,  the  iVpries  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Ilophra  of 
Scripture.  After  the  great  defeat  which  Neco  suffered  on  the 
Euphrates,  no  attempt  had  been  made  by  Egypt  to  recover  her 
ascendency  in  Palestine  and  Syria,  which  appear  to  have  been 
entirely  dependant  on  Babylon.  Jehoiakim,  whom  Xeco  had 
placed  on  the  throne  of  Judaea,  had  been  compelled  to  submit 
himself  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  for  three  years  remained  faithful ; 
but  at  the  end  of  that  time,  perhaps  in  hope  of  assistance  from 
Egypt,  he  "  turned  and  rebelled  against  him."  The  weakness  to 
which  Judaea  had  been  reduced,  exposed  it  to  invasions  from  all 
the  neighboring  tribes,  Mohabites,  Ammonites  and  Syrians,  as  well 
as  the  Chaldees3.  The  king  of  Babylon  himself,  it  should  seem, 
was  engaged  elsewhere,  probably  in  establishing  his  dominion  at 
home.  Jehoiakim  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Coniah  or  Jehoiakin 
in  598  b.c.    He  had  either  made  himself  king  on  his  father's 

As  the  king  had  only  come  to  Elephantine,  while  the  Greeks  anl  the 
aX\oy\6(jao<;  had  gone  to  the  Second  Cataract,  it  is  evident  that  it  cannot  be 
the  expedition  of  Psammitichus  I.  (Herod.  2,  151)  to  overtake  his  fugitive 
soldiery.  Nor  in  his  reign  is  it  probable  that  the  son  of  a  Greek  should 
have  been  named  Psammitichus. 

1  Her.  2,  163.  3  Diod.  Sic.  14,  35.  3  2  Kings  xxiv.  1,  2, 


348 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


death,  or  had  been  placed  on  the  throne  by  the  people  without 
the  approbation  of  the  king  of  Babylon.  An  army  was  imme- 
diately sent  against  him,  and  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  was  formed 
by  the  lieutenants  of  Nebuchadnezzar ;  but  it  appears  to  have  pro- 
ceeded slowly,  till  the  king  himself  came,  to  take  the  command  of 
the  besieging  army,  when  the  city  speedily  surrendered1 ;  Jehoiakin 
was  carried  captive  to  Babylon  within  twelve  months  from  his 
accession,  and  his  uncle  Zedekiah  placed  on  the  throne  in  his  stead. 
Apries  had  succeeded  to  his  father  about  four  years  previously, 
and  the  earliest  undertakings  of  his  reign  were  directed  to  the 
recovery  of  that  ascendency  in  Syria  and  Palestine  which  Neco 
had  possessed.  But  Jerusalem  being  virtually  in  the  power  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  he  did  not  venture  at  first  to  attempt  an 
invasion  by  land.  We  find  that  the  hopes  of  the  people  of  Judaea 
were  strongly  excited  ;  the  prophet  Hananiah  foretold,  that  within 
two  years  the  yoke  of  the  king  of  Babylon  should  be  broken,  and 
the  captive  king  be  restored  to  his  throne.  This  was  the  effect  of 
the  success  which  attended  the  first  undertakings  of  Apries,  and  a 
truer  prophet  warned  them  that  they  would  prove  fallacious.  All 
the  nations  of  Palestine  appear  to  have  been  alarmed  at  the  grow- 
ing power  of  Babylon,  and  sent  emissaries  to  Zedekiah,  tempting 
him  to  throw  off  his  allegiance  to  Nebuchadnezzar.  They  were 
also  warned  by  Jeremiah  of  the  fruitlessness  of  their  attempts,  by 
the  symbolical  act  of  sending  a  yoke  to  the  sovereigns  when  their 
emissaries  returned2.  Their  more  immediate  danger,  however,  \\  as 
from  Egypt.  Herodotus  speaks  only  of  Apries'  expedition  against 
Sidon  and  his  sea-fight  with  the  king  of  Tyre;  but,  according  to 
Diodorus,  he  took  Sidon  by  storm,  reduced  the  whole  sea-coast  of 
Phoenicia  and  defeated  the  Cyprians,  who  appear  to  h  ive  been 

1  2  Kings  xxiv.  10-16. 

1  Jer.  xxvii.  In  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter  Zedekiah  should  certainly 
be  read  for  Jehoiakim  (comp.  v.  3),  if  indeed  the  whole  verse,  which  is 
wanting  in  the  Septuagint,  be  not  an  interpolation. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


340 


allies,  if  not  subjects1,  of  the  Phoenicians.  Although  Gaza  and  the 
other  towns  of  South  Palestine  are  not  expressly  mentioned  by 
either  of  the  Greek  historians,  it  is  probably  to  this  time  that  the 
prophecy  in  the  47th  chapter  of  Jeremiah2  is  to  be  referred  ;  and 
as  the  destruction  is  said  to  come  from  the  north,  it  must  have 
been  attacked  on  the  return  of  Apries  from  his  campaign  against 
Cyprus  and  Sidon.  After  these  successes,  Apries  dispatched  an 
army  into  Judaea.  Zedekiah  having  violated  the  oath  of  allegiance 
which  he  had  sworn  to  Nebuchadnezzar3,  and  sent  ambassadors 
into  Egypt  to  ask  for  an  auxiliary  force  of  cavalry  and  infantry4, 
the  Chaldaeans  had  invested  Jerusalem.  The  tidings  of  the  march 
of  the  Egyptian  army  caused  them  to  raise  the  siege5,  but  they 
returned,  as  Jeremiah  had  foretold,  in  greater  strength,  the  king 
himself  commanding  them6 ;  and  the  troops  of  Apries,  it  is  pro- 
bable, retired  without  a  contest.  The  prophecy  of  EzekieP,  in 
which  the  arm  of  Pharaoh  is  described  as  being  broken,  so  that  it 
could  never  be  bound  up  again  to  hold  the  sword,  was  delivered  on 
occasion  of  this  retreat,  when  Egypt  renounced  for  ever  its  attempts 
to  occupy  Palestine.  Nebuchadnezzar,  after  a  siege  of  eighteen 
months,  took  Jerusalem  by  storm,  and  Zedekiah  being  made  pri- 
soner, as  he  was  attempting  to  escape  in  disguise  by  a  concealed 
breach  in  the  wall8,  was  deprived  of  his  eyesight,  and  carried  in 

1  Virg.  Mn.  1,  621 :— 

 Genitor  turn  Belus  opimam 

Yastabat  Cyprum  et  victor  ditione  tenebat 
Menander  (Jos.  Ant.  9,  14,  2)  represents  Elula?us,  in  the  time  of  Shalmane- 
ser,  as  reducing  the  revolted  people  of  Citium  into  obedience. 

2  "The  word  of  the  Lord  that  came  to  Jeremiah  the  prophet  against  the 
Philistines,  before  that,  Pharaoh  smote  Gaza." 

•  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  1 3. 

4  Ezek.  xvii.  15.  The  embassy  to  Egypt  must  have  taken  place  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixth  year  of  Zedekiah,  in  592  or  591  b.  c. 

'  Jer.  xxxvii.  6  Ezek.  xxiv.  2. 

7  Ezek.  xxx.  21.  8  Ezek.  xii.  12. 


350 


HISTORY"  OF  EGYPT. 


chains  to  Babylon.  This  took  place  in  the  eleventh  year  of  Zede- 
Jriah's  reign,  and  the  seventh  of  the  reign  of  Apries  (587  b.  c).  In 
consequence  of  the  murder  of  Gedaliah,  to  whom  the  government 
of  Judrca  had  been  entrusted  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  many  of  the 
Jewish  chiefs  who  had  escaped  the  execution  of  Riblah1  tied  into 
Egypt,  carrying  with  them  the  prophet  Jeremiah.  He  probably 
finished  his  days  at  Daphnse  near  Pelusium,  foretelling  in  the  last 
of  his  prophecies  the  fate  of  Apries3. 

After  the  occupation  of  Jerusalem  the  efforts  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
would  naturally  be  directed  to  the  reduction  of  the  sea-coast  of 
Palestine  and  Syria,  without  securing  which  it  would  have  been 
unsafe  for  him  to  have  attacked  Egypt.  Tyre  was  at  this  time  in 
the  height  of  her  commercial  prosperity  and  naval  power3.  Whe- 
ther in  subjection  to  Egypt  in  consequence  of  the  victory  of  Apries, 
or  not,  she  was  evidently  hostile  to  Babylon  from  a  natural  jealousy 
of  any  power,  Egyptian,  Jewish,  or  Chaldaean,  by  whose  ascendency 
her  commerce  might  suffer,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  almost  immediately 
undertook  the  siege.  Even  before  Jerusalem  was  actually  taken, 
but  when  that  event  was  clearly  to  be  anticipated,  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  describes  Tyre  as  exulting  in  the  prospect  of  the  increase 
of  her  own  power  by  the  sufferings  of  her  rival4,  and  foretells  her 
destruction.  The  siege  must  have  begun  soon  after  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  ;  the  insular  position  of  Tyre  (for  the  original  city  on 
the  mainland  had  been  taken  by  Shalmaneser),  the  strength  of  its 
fortifications,  and  the  command  of  the  sea,  enabled  it  to  hold  out 
for  thirteen  years,  as  we  learn  from  the  Tyrian  historians  quoted 
by  Josephus5.    It  is  clear  that  the  results  were  not  such  as  the 

1  2  Kings  xxv.  21. 

They  appear  to  close  with  the  44th  chapter.  The  Fathers  (Hieron.  adv. 
Jov.  lib.  2.  Tertull.  Scorpiace  viii.)  say  that  Jeremiah  was  stoned  by  the 
people. 

*  See  the  description  in  Ezek.  xxvi.-xxviii. 

•  Ezek.  xxvi.  2.  5  Cont.  Apion.  1.  21. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


351 


besieging  army  had  expected  from  success.  "  Nebuchadnezzar  and 
his  troops  had  served  a  great  service  ;"  their  heads  had  grown  bald 
with  the  pressure  of  the  helmet,  and  their  shoulders  had  been  galled 
by  the  weight  of  the  cuirass ;  expressions  which  indicate  a  pro- 
tracted warfare ;  "  yet  had  they  no  wages  for  Tyre  for  the  service 
that  they  had  served  against  it1 ;"  and  the  spoil  of  Egypt  is  pro- 
mised to  them  as  a  compensation  for  this  disappointment,  which 
probably  arose  from  the  city  having  surrendered  on  terms  which 
saved  it  from  being  given  up  to  plunder2.  That  an  invasion  of 
Egypt  actually  took  place  is  probable.  Megasthenes  asserted  that 
Nauocodrosorus  (Nebuchadnezzar)  had  led  his  army  as  far  as  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  conquered  great  part  of  Libya3.  Unless 
this  is  a  pure  fiction,  he  must  have  made  conquests  to  the  westward 
of  Egypt,  which  he  could  not  do  without  passing  through  the 
northern  border  of  that  country. 

Now  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah4  implies  no  more  than  such  a 
passage,  accompanied  by  the  usual  outrages  of  a  victorious  army. 
It  does  not  describe  a  permanent  occupation.  The  prophet 
declares  that  "  he  would  spread  his  pavilion  in  Tahpenes  (Daphnas), 
break  the  images  of  Bethshemesh  (Heliopolis)  and  lay  waste  Noph 
(Memphis) ;  that  he  should  array  himself  with  the  land  of  Egypt 
as  a  shepherd  putteth  on  his  garment,  and  go  forth  thence  in 
peace."    He  might  be  deterred  from  attempting  the  conquest  of 

1  St.  Jerome  on  Ezek.  xxix.  ]8,  relates  that  when  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
nearly  completed  his  mole  to  attack  the  island,  the  Tyrians  put  their  wealth 
on  shipboard  and  carried  it  off:  but  it  is  difficult  to  know  whether  he  is 
relating  a  certified  fact  or  expounding  the  prophecy. 

8  The  reign  of  Ithobalus,  the  king  under  whom  the  siege  took  place,  was 
followed  by  that  of  Baal,  which  lasted  ten  years;  then  followed  a  period 
of  mixed  government  of  auffetes,  high  priest  and  king,  for  eight  years,  after 
which  two  princes  in  succession  were  sent  for  to  Tyre  from  Babylon,  to  be 
invested  with  royalty,  which  seems  to  imply  some  kind  of  dependence  at 
that  time.    (Jos.  Ant.  9,  14,  %) 

3  Strabo,  15,  687.  4  Jer.  xliii.  12 ;  xlvi.  13-26. 


352 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Middle  and  Upper  Egypt  by  the  power  of  Apries,  or  dissuaded  by 
his  submission.  This  explanation,  however,  will  not  apply  to  the 
prophecy  of  Ezekiel1,  according  to  which  man  and  beast  were  to  be 
cut  off  from  the  land,  from  Migdol  to  Syene,  and  Egypt  to  be 
desolate  for  forty  years.  The  remark  is  often  forced  upon  one  who 
compares  prophecy  with  history,  that  the  prophet,  in  enlarging 
upon  his  theme  and  carrying  it  out  into  details,  indulges  his  own 
peculiar  genius,  and  obeys  in  some  measure  the  impulse  of  his  own 
feeling.  The  genius  of  Ezekiel  was  exaggerative2  and  vehement, 
whereas  the  style  of  Jeremiah  is  more  simple  and  prosaic.  It 
would  be  pushing  a  negative  argument  too  far  to  deny  any  inva- 
sion of  Egypt  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  because  it  is  not  mentioned  in 
Herodotus  ;  but  to  relate  its  desolation  for  a  long  series  of  years  as 
a  fact,  would  be  a  violation  of  all  principles  of  historical  criticism. 
It  is  certain  that  from  this  time  there  was  no  hostility  between  Egypt 
and  Babylon,  and  there  is  even  reason  to  think  that  Nebuchad- 
nezzar married  an  Egyptian  princess. 

There  is  a  striking  correspondence  between  the  language  in  which 
Ezekiel  describes  the  pride  of  Pharaoh  and  its  humiliation,  and  the 
contrast  which  Herodotus  draws  between  the  commencement  and 
the  close  of  his  reign.  Next  to  Psammitichus  he  had  been  the 
most  prosperous  of  Egyptian  kings  ;  but  the  time  had  arrived  when 
he  was  destined  to  misfortune,  and  according  to  the  historian's 
philosophy,  great  prosperity,  especially  if  accompanied  with  any 
elevation  of  mind,  was  provocative  of  a  reverse3.  Both  the  pros- 
perity and  the  pride  of  Apries4  are  set  forth  in  strong  poetic 

1  Ezek.  xxix. 

2  "Ezekiel — est  atrox,  veheraens,  tragicus,  totus  in  Saviocci,  frequens  in 
repetitionibus,  non  deeoris  aut  gratise  causa,  sed  ex  iudignatione  et  violen- 
tia."    (Lowtb,  de  Sacra  Poesi  HebraBortun,  Pra;l.  xxi.) 

3  1,  34.  Mcra  6i  EdAwya  oi^Ojitvov,  z\aj3e  zk  deov  ft^ratj  peydXn  lZpoiaov'  wj 
eix  ,(rai}    T:  €POfUtt€  twvrov  rival  dvOptoTTLOv  a-dvrcop  6\/3iu>TaTOi>. 

4  'Airp'uco  Si  Xtycrai  eluai  ijSe  %  Stdvoia,  priS'  ai/  deov  jiiv  firidzva  SvvaaOai  navvai  r% 
fiaaiKqirA'  uvtu)  dcr^aXeus  twvrw  ISovaOai  iSoxic.     (2,  169.) 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


353 


imagery  by  Ezekiel :  he  is  likened  to  a  crocodile  lying  in  the  midst 
of  the  Nile,  saying  of  the  river,  "  It  is  mine  own,  I  have  made  it 
for  myself,"  troubling  the  waters  with  his  feet,  when  he  rushed 
forth  to  seize  his  prey1.  It  was  not,  however,  from  the  rival  power 
of  Babylon  that  he  was  destined  to  meet  with  destruction. 

The  Greek  colony  of  Cyrene  had  been  founded  about  half  a  cen- 
tury before  this  time.  The  history  of  its  establishment  is  curiously 
illustrative  of  the  state  of  geographical  knowledge  among  the 
Greeks  in  the  seventh  century  before  Christ.  The  king  of  Thera, 
a  small  island  of  the  Sporades,  had  gone  to  Delphi,  probably  to 
consult  the  oracle  respecting  the  drought  under  which  the  island 
had  suffered2.  The  Pythia  replied,  "  that  they  should  go  and 
found  a  city  in  Libya."  The  Theraeans  were  descended  partly  from 
the  Minyae,  the  earliest  navigators  of  Greece3,  partly  from  the 
Phoenician  companions  of  Cadmus,  yet  they  knew  not  in  what 
part  of  the  world  Libya  was.  Not  daring,  even  in  obedience  to 
an  oracle,  to  go  forth  on  such  a  blind  expedition,  they  continued  to 
endure  the  drought,  till  every  tree  on  the  island,  save  one,  had 
perished.  They  had  again  recourse  to  the  oracle,  but  received  for 
answer  only  a  renewal  of  the  command  to  colonize  Libya,  accom- 
panied by  a  reproach  for  their  neglect  of  the  previous  oracle. 
They  knew,  however,  that  Crete  lay  between  it  and  their  own 
island,  and  sent  thither  to  inquire  whether  any  Cretan  or  stranger 
settled  there  had  ever  been  in  Libya.  After  wandering  througk 
the  island  they  came  to  the  town  of  Itanus  at  its  eastern  extremity, 
and  there  found  a  manufacturer  of  purple  of  the  name  of  Corofeius. 
He  had  been  driven,  probably  while  seeking  for  the  shell-fish  from 
which  the  purple  is  derived4,  to  the  island  of  Platea,  now  Bomba, 

1  Ezek.  xxix.  1,  3 ;  xxxii.  2. 

3  Her.  4,  151,  represents  the  drought  as  following  the  first  visit  to 
Delphi.  3  Miiller,  Orchomenos  und  die  Minyer,  258. 

4  Zuchis,  on  the  coast  of  North  Africa,  near  the  Syrtis,  is  mentioned  by 
Strabo  as  a  great  seat  of  the  manufacture  of  purple  (17,  835). 


354 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


between  Paraetonium  and  Gyrene.  The  promise  of  a  reward 
induced  him  to  return  with  them  to  Thera,  and  thence  to  sail, 
accompanied  by  an  exploring  party,  to  Platea.  The  Therans  left 
him  on  the  island  with  such  a  supply  of  provisions  as  they  calcu- 
lated would  sufiice,  and  returned  to  Thera  to  fetch  their  country- 
men. The  time  fixed  for  their  coming  had  expired  ;  and  Coro- 
bius  would  have  perished  from  want,  had  not  some  Samians  on 
their  voyage  to  Egypt  been  driven  to  the  same  island,  who,  on 
hearing  his  story,  left  him  provisions  for  a  year1.  A  colony  after 
6ome  time  arrived  from  Thera,  but  their  first  settlement  was  not 
prosperous,  and  when  two  years  had  elapsed,  leaving  one  of  their 
number  on  the  island,  they  again  visited  Delphi,  and  complained 
to  the  Pythia  that  though  they  had  colonized  Libya,  they  had 
fared  no  better.  The  answer  of  the  Pythia  implied  that  they  were 
mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  island  was  Libya2,  and  they  accor- 
dingly removed  to  a  place  named  Aziris,  opposite  to  it  on  the 
mainland,  at  the  opening  of  the  valley  which  is  now  called  Wadi 
el  Temmineh.  Herodotus  says,  that  after  remaining  here  six  years 
they  were  induced  by  the  promises  of  a  better  settlement  to  let 
themselves  be  conducted  by  the  Libyans  to  Cyrene,  and  that  their 
guides  contrived  to  lead  them  by  night  through  the  finest  part  of 
the  country.  But  it  is  evident  from  the  exclamation  of  one  of  the 
guides  when  they  arrived  at  Cyrene,  "  Greeks,  here  it  is  best  for 
you  to  dwell  ;  for  here  the  skies  are  pierced3,"  that  they  had  been 
pining  for  a  land  watered  by  rain,  having  found  that  the  evil  of 
drought  had  followed  them  to  their  new  settlement.    Such  a  land 

1  These  Samians,  when  they  left  Platea,  made  for  Egypt,  but  the  violence 
and  long  continuance  of  the  east  wind  drove  them  through  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  to  Tartessus,  a  mart  till  then  un visited  by  Greeks  (Herod.  4,  152). 

2  At  rv  iuei  A.i(3ir)v  firi\oTf>6^ov  oidag  UjtCivop 

Tfj  eXdtov  c\66v-os}  ayav  ayapai  aotyir\v  cev. — Her.  4,  157. 

8  In  the  language  of  Scripture,  "  the  windows  of  heaven  are  opened." 
(Gen.  vii.  11.    Mai.  hi.  10.) 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYXASTV. 


355 


is  the  Cyrenaica1 :  as  the  traveller  ascends  from  the  Gulf  of  Bomba 
towards  the  elevated  "plateau  on  which  the  city  stands,  the  sandy 
soil  changes  to  a  rich  loam  ;  a  fine  vegetation  clothes  the  hills 
(the  Arabs  now  call  it  the  Green  Mountain)  ;  herds  of  cattle  are 
seen,  which  the  lands  on  the  sea  coast  are  unable  to  support ;  the 
olive,  the  citron,  the  juniper,  the  cypress,  the  pine,  grow  luxuriantly2, 
and  there  is  an  abundant  supply  of  water.  The  whole  district  pro- 
duced the  Silphium3,  which  was  so  highly  prized  in  ancient  phar- 
macy that  it  sometimes  sold  for  its  weight  in  silver4.  The  differ- 
ent elevation  of  the  coast,  the  mountains  and  the  intermediate 
region,  gave  the  Cyrenians  three  harvests  in  the  year,  one  becom- 
ing ripe  while  the  other  was  gathered  in5.  The  site  of  Cyrene  was 
well  adapted  for  the  settlement  of  a  flourishing  colony.  The  pro- 
montory on  which  it  stands,  between  the  Syrtis  and  the  Bay  of 
Bomba,  is  the  nearest  point  to  Greece  of  the  whole  line  t  of  the 
African  coast ;  and  there  is  an  excellent  harbor  at  the  distance  of 
80  stadia  or  10  miles  from  the  town6.  The  gardens  of  the  Hes- 
perides,  as  far  as  they  had  a  prototype  in  nature,  appear  to  have  been 
hollows  in  the  limestone  hills  on  the  western  side  of  the  promon- 
tory, where  orchards  of  extraordinary  productiveness  are  found. 

The  establishment  of  the  colony  of  Cyrene  was  indirectly  fatal 
to  the  Saitic  dynasty.    Under  Battus  L  its  founder,  who  reigned 

1  The  name  was  probably  Phoenician,  and  derived  from  cornu,  like 
Cerne  on  the  coast  of  Mauritania.  Compare  Isaiah,  v.  1,  where  "  a  very 
fruitful  hill"  is  literally  "a  horn,  the  son  of  fatness;"  iv  xtpart,  iv  rd™  rlmu 
(Sept.) 

2  Pacho,  Voyage  dans  la  Marmorique,  p.  83. 

8  It  is  supposed  to  be  the  Laserpitium  Derias  w  hich  Pacho  observed  to 
grow  plentifully  in  the  Cyrenaica,  though  he  nowhere  met  with  it  between 
Egypt  and  the  Bay  of  Bomba.  It  was  not  found  westward  of  the  Syrtis 
(Her.  4,  169).  Pliny,  X.  H.  22,  49,  enumerates  its  virtues,  which  extended 
from  the  dispersion  of  a  dropsy  to  the  cure  of  corns. 

4  Aristoph.  Plut.  925.    Plin.  N.  H.  19,  15. 

6  Herod.  4,  199.  6  Scylax,  107,  p.  234,  cd.  Klausen. 


356 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


40  years,  and  his  son  Arcesilaus,  who  reigned  16,  the  numbers  of 
the  original  settlers  were  not  increased  by  any  new  immigration. 
But  in  the  reign  of  Battus,  surnamed  the  Prosperous,  an  invitation 
was  sent  to  all  the  Greeks  to  come  and  aid  the  Cyrenians  in  colo- 
nizing Libya,  with  the  promise  of  an  allotment  of  land.  The 
Pythia  lent  her  aid,  as  before,  by  an  oracle  which  warned  against 
delay1,  and  a  great  multitude  soon  assembled  at  Cyrene  from  Crete, 
Peloponnesus,  and  the  Cyclades  and  Sporades2.  They  could  not 
be  provided  with  the  land  which  had  been  promised  them,  but  at 
the  expense  of  the  native  Libyans,  who  were  not  only  stripped  of 
their  territories,  but  treated  with  great  insolence,  according  to  the 
common  fate  of  barbarians  who  presume  to  defend  their  rights 
against  the  intrusion  of  a  civilized  people.  They  were  probably 
the  same  Libyan  tribe,  the  Giligamnue,  in  whose  territory 
the  first  Thersean  settlers  had  landed.  Egypt  was  interested  in 
preventing  the  further  growth  of  a  power  which  threatened  to 
encroach  on  all  its  neighbors3.  Adicran,  the  king  of  the  Libyans, 
sent  to  implore  aid  from  Apries,  and  place  himself  under  his 
authority.  Apries  accepted  the  offer  of  the  Libyans,  and  sent  a 
large  army  to  their  aid  ;  but  as  he  could  not  venture  to  employ  his 
Greek  mercenaries  against  their  countrymen,  it  was  composed 
entirely  of  Egyptian  troops.  The  Cyrenians  marched  out,  and  a 
battle  took  place  at  Irasa,  now  Ain  3rsen\  between  the  Bay  of 
Bomba  and  Cyrene..    The  Egyptians  had  never  before  encountered 

1  "Of  6i  Ktv  ii  A  i0vr]i/  TroXvfiparov  votcoov  t'XOi] 

Yds  dvaSaiOfjiivus,  pcra  oi  ttoku  (f>afxi  ^tXrfattv. — Her.  4,  159. 

a  Her.  4,  161. 

*  Her.  4,  168.  Scylax  (106,  p.  233  Klausen)  extends  the  Egyptian  terri- 
tory as  far  as  Apis  (Boun  Ajoubah) ;  but  his  work  was  hardly  written 
before  the  middle  of  the  4th  century  B.C. 

4  'Es'fyuera  x  -opov  ical  tnl  k  p  >i  v  r)  v  Otarrjv.  (Her.  4,  159.)  Jmmeans  foun- 
tain, and  in  these  countries  fountains  are  more  permanent  than  towns. 
The  name  is  probably  also  Phoenician  Hl"1^  urbs.  See  Gesenius,  Ling 
Phcen.  1,  424, 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY". 


357 


Greek  arms  and  tactics  ;  the  disproportion  in  numbers  must  have 
been  great,  but  the  negligence  of  their  adversaries  enabled  the 
Greeks  to  gain  a  complete  victory,  and  few  of  the  Egyptian  army 
returned  to  their  own  country.  It  was  the  first  occasion  on  which 
the  valor  and  skill  of  the  free  Hellenes  was  matched  in  a  pitched 
battle  against  the  forces  of  the  great  despotic  monarchies  which 
had  previously  ruled  the  world ;  the  first  of  a  series  of  victories, 
which  in  the  course  of  two  centuries  and  a  half  made  them  masters 
of  the  ancient  territories  of  Assyria,  Babylonia  and  Egypt. 

The  news  of  this  defeat  and  the  almost  entire  extermination  of 
the  army  produced  a  revolt  in  Egypt.  Apries,  who  had  probably 
imagined  that  he  should  easily  conquer  a  handful  of  Greeks,  was 
accused  of  having  sent  his  troops  on  an  enterprise  in  which  he 
knew  that  they  must  perish,  in  the  hope  of  governing  his  kingdom 
more  securely  by  means  of  the  foreigners.  Those  who  returned, 
being  joined  by  the  relatives  of  those  who  had  perished,  imme- 
diately revolted.  Apries,  on  the  receipt  of  this  intelligence,  sent 
to  them  Amasis,  one  of  his  officers,  who  had  gained  the  favor  of 
the  king,  and  been  advanced  to  high  office,  though  of  humble 
origin,  by  the  beauty  of  a  chaplet  which  he  presented  to  him  on 
his  birth-day.  While  he  was  haranguing  them  in  order  to  bring 
them  back  to  their  allegiance,  a  soldier  came  behind  him,  and 
placed  a  crown  upon  his  head.  He  accepted  it  without  reluctance, 
and  prepared  to  march  against  Apries.  On  hearing  this,  Apries 
dispatched  Patarbemis1,  an  officer  of  high  rank,  with  orders  to 
bring  Amasis  alive  into  his  presence.  Amasis  bade  him  return 
with  a  contemptuous  refusal,  and  when  he  appeared  before  Apries, 
the  king  ordered  his  ears  and  nose  to  be  cut  off.  The  Egyptians 
who  had  hitherto  adhered  to  the  royal  cause,  seeing  the  outrage 
offered  to  a  man  who  was  highly  esteemed  among  them,  irame- 

1  Hellanicus  ( Athen.  15,  p.  6S0)  called  the  king  himself  Partamis,  appa- 
rently from  confusion  with  Patarbemis. 


358 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


diately  joined  Amasis  and  the  revolters.  Apries  was  thus  left 
alone  with  his  Carian  and  Ionian  auxiliaries,  whose  numbers 
amounted  to  30,000.  He  marched  from  Sais,  where  his  royal 
residence  was,  to  meet  Amasis,  who  was  advancing  from  Lybia, 
and  the  armies  encountered  at  Momemphis,  near  the  borders  of 
the  Lake  Mareotis.  The  digression  which  Herodotus  makes  at 
this  moment  of  his  narrative1,  to  give  an  account  of  the  castes  of 
Egypt,  and  especially  of  the  numbers  and  privileges  of  the  military 
caste,  proves  that  in  his  mind  this  revolt  was  closely  connected 
with  the  attempt  which  the  Saitic  princes  had  carried  on  for  three- 
quarters  of  a  century,  to  raise  up  a  body  of  Greek  troops,  by 
whose  means  they  might  make  themselves  independent  of  the 
ancient  soldiery.  Their  dissatisfaction  first  manifested  itself  in  the 
emigration  of  the  Automoli,  and  most  effectually  in  the  revolt 
under  Amasis.  That  they  were  still  so  powerful  is  a  proof  that 
the  numbers  of  the  Automoli  must  have  been  greatly  exaggerated. 
The  auxiliaries  were  defeated,  owing  to  the  superiority  in  numbers 
of  the  Egyptians,  and  Apries  being  taken  prisoner,  was  carried 
back  to  Sais  to  the  palace,  now  become  the  property  of  Amasis. 
For  a  time  he  was  treated  with  kindness  by  his  conqueror ;  but 
the  Egyptians  murmured  at  the  indulgence  shown  to  one  who  had 
made  himself  so  odious  to  them.  Amasis  therefore  delivered  him 
into  the  hands  of  the  people,  by  whom  he  was  strangled2,  but 
allowed  to  be  buried  with  his  ancestors  in  the  splendid  temple  of 
Minerva  at  Sais.  To  the  modes  of  interment  in  pyramids  practised 
under  the  Old  Monarchy  and  in  grotto  sepulchres  by  the  Theban 
dynasties,  another  had  been  added  by  the  Pharaohs  of  Sais.  The 
level  and  alluvial  Delta  afforded  neither  hills  on  which  pyramids 
could  be  set  up,  as  objects  conspicuous  from  afar,  nor  rocks  in 
which  sepulchres  could  be  hewn.    They  therefore  constructed  for 

1  %  164. 

2  Jor.  xliv.  30.  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Behold  I  will  give  Pharaoh  Hophra 
into  the  hand  of  his  enemies,  and  into  the  hand  of  them  that  seek  his  life.*' 


THE  TWENTY- SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


309 


their  remaius  vaults  within  the  precincts  of  the  temples,  sur- 
rounded with  pilasters  and  columns,  and  opening  with  fold- 
ing-doors. The  interments  of  the  common  people  of  Sais 
were  made  in  a  large  necropolis,  of  which  the  remains  may  still 
be  traced1.  Apries  had  reigned,  according  to  Herodotus  and 
Manetho  as  reported  by  Eusebius,  twenty-five  years,  and  died 
569  B.C. 

Amasis  or  Amosis,  was  a  native  of  Siouph,  a  small  town  in  the 
Saitic  nome,  and  of  plebeian  birth2.  Thus  another  great  principle 
of  the  ancient  constitution  of  Egypt  was  infringed,  according  to 
which  the  king  must  be  chosen  from  the  priests  or  the  soldiery. 
Being  a  man  of  the  people,  he  was  no  doubt  supported  by  them, 
and  at  first  despised  by  the  higher  castes  for  the  meanness  of  his 
birth.  He  admonished  them,  by  a  truly  oriental  mode,  a  sym- 
bolical action,  of  the  folly  of  valuing  men  according  to  their  origin, 
instead  of  their  actual  place  and  use  in  society.  He  had  a  golden 
foot  bath,  in  which  he  and  his  guests  were  accustomed  to  wash 
their  feet  b  fore  the  banquet.  This  he  broke  up,  and  out  of  the 
material  fashioned  a  statue  of  a  god,  which  was  erected  in  a  public 
place,  and  received  the  homage  of  the  citizens.  Sending  for  the 
Egyptians,  he  pointed  out  to  them  to  what  honor  this  vessel  had 
been  raised,  which  had  formerly  served  for  humble  and  even  dis- 
honorable uses3.  "  My  lot,"  said  he,  "  has  been  the  same  :  I  was 
once  a  plebeian  ;  I  am  now  your  king ;  and  you  must  honor  and 
respect  me  accordingly ;"  and  in  this  way  he  gently  reconciled 
them  to  his  yoke.    In  another  respect  he  innovated  upon  ancient 

1  Champollion,  Lettres,  p.  50,  52. 

5  A>7//o't/ji/  to  npiv  iovra  Kal  om/jj  ovk  eiri<f>av£os.     (Her.  2,  172.) 

8  The  lively  description  of  Herodotus  gives  no  high  idea  of  the  refine- 
ment of  Egyptian  manners.  <t>as  e<  roD  noSai/wrfjpos  rwya\jia  yeyofifatf  is  rov 
irporepov  idi>  touj  A.iyvnriovs  evepeiv  re  k  al  ivovpttiVKai  roda;  ivaxoi  i^c<rdnt. 
(2,  172.)  In  a  picture  at  Thebes  (Wilkinson,  M.  and  C,  167)  is  a  represen- 
tation of  the  effects  of  wine  on  ladies  at  a  feast. 


300 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


customs.  The  court  ceremonial  of  Egypt,  arranged  hy  the  priests, 
regulated  for  the  sovereign  the  employment  of  all  his  hours,  and 
when  he  had  given  the  morning  to  the  dispatch  of  business, 
prescribed  to  him  religious  duties  and  moral  reading.  Amasis  did 
not  neglect  the  duties  of  sovereignty ;  on  the  contrary  he  estab- 
lished a  strict  administration  throughout  Egypt,  and  raised  it  to 
a  high  degree  of  prosperity.  But  having  given  the  early  hours 
of  the  day  to  business,  he  devoted  the  rest  to  pleasure,  drank 
freely,  and  unbent  his  mind  in  pleasantry  with  his  boon  compa- 
nions. Ilis  friends  were  scandalized  at  his  levities,  and  thus 
addressed  him  :  "  You  do  wrong,  0  king,  in  making  yourself  so 
cheap  ;  you  ought  to  sit  gravely  in  a  throne  of  state,  and  give  the 
whole  day  to  business  ;  the  Egyptians  would  then  know  by  how 
great  a  personage  they  are  governed,  and  you  would  be  in  better 
repute  with  them.  Your  present  conduct  is  quite  unkingly." 
But  Amasis  replied  :  "  Those  who  have  bows,  string  them  when 
they  want  to  use  them,  and  unstring  them  when  they  have  done  ; 
for  if  they  were  kept  always  strung  they  would  break,  and  be 
useless  when  they  were  wanted.  And  such  is  the  case  with  man  : 
if  he  were  to  attempt  to  be  always  serious,  and  never  to  relax  with 
mirth,  he  would  insensibly  become  mad,  or  lose  his  faculties. 
Aware  of  this,  I  give  part  of  my  day  to  business  and  part  to 
amusement1."  Amasis  is  the  first  king  of  Egypt  of  whose  per- 
sonal character  we  have  any  knowledge  ;  the  older  Pharaohs 
hasre  been  distinguished  by  their  names,  their  public  acts,  and  the 
length  of  their  reigns ;  but  we  have  known  nothing  of  the  men. 
We  readily  recognize  the  qualities  wrhich  made  him  the  favorite  of 
the  people  and  the  common  soldiers  ;  Julius  Caesar,  Henry  V.,  are 
examples  of  a  youth  spent  in  licentious  and  even  lawless  courses, 
succeeded  by  a  manhood  of  vigorous  activity  and  equitable  and 

1  Herod.  2,  1*72.  See  vol.  i.-  p.  382,  the  account  of  the  treatment  which 
the  different  oracles  underwent  from  Amasis  after  his  accession. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


361 


sagacious  administration1 ;  and  the  union  of  severe  application  to 
business,  with  the  love  of  pleasure  and  a  playful  humor  in  the 
hours  of  relaxation,  has  a  parallel  in  Philip  of  Macedon. 

His  reign  was  favored  by  external  circumstances.  The  Nile  was 
regular  in  its  rise,  and  the  land  yielded  abundance  to  the  people  ; 
the  number  of  inhabited  places  exceeded  twenty  thousand2.  A 
friendly  alliance  was'  made  with  Cyrene,  and  Egyptian  prejudice 
so  far  set  at  nought,  that  Amasis  married  Ladike,  the  daughter 
either  of  the  king  of  that  city,  or  of  an  eminent  citizen.  No  dan- 
ger threatened  on  the  side  of  Babylon  ;  on  the  contrary,  their 
relations  were  friendly,  and  Amasis,  after  the  power  of  Cyrus 
became  formidable,  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Nabonadius  or 
Labynetus,  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  for  the  defence  of  Croesus 
against  the  Medes3.  The  rapid  movements  of  Cyrus  defeated  their 
purpose,  and  Sardis  was  taken  before  the  allies  of  Croesus  could 
muster.  This  was  in  the  year  546  b.c.  The  naval  power  of  the 
Phoenicians  was  so  much  reduced  by  the  war  of  Xebuchadnezzar 
against  Tyre,  that  Amasis  dispossessed  them  of  Cyprus4,  and  made 
it  tributary,  which  would  facilitate  his  intercourse  with  Asia  Minor. 
His  internal  regulations  were  so  judicious,  that  he  is  reckoned  with 
Menes,  Sasychis,  Sesostris  and  Bocchoris,  as  one  of  the  great  legis- 
lators of  Egypt.  They  extended,  according  to  Diodorus,  to  the 
whole  administration5,  but  only  one  of  them  is  specified6.  It 
obliged  every  man  to  declare  every  year  to  the  chief  magistrate  of 
his  nome,  by  what  means  he  lived,  and  if  he  could  show  no  honest 
livelihood,  he  was  to  be  put  to  death.  It  is  probably  more  correctly 
stated  by  Diodorus7  that  he  who  gave  a  false  account  of  himself, 

1  Tlapa5t6orai  avvtroi  te  yEyovtvai  ko.0'  v-cp/3oXliv  Kai  tov  rpfrrov  iiruiKtjs  koi  <Ji*caioj. 
(Diod.  1,  95.) 

2  Herod.  2,  177.  8  Herod.  1,  77. 

*  Herodotus  says,  £?-\£  6i  JZiirpov  irpwrjj  dvdpamuv,  but  this  is  evidently  a 
mistake. 

5  1,  95.  6  Herod.  1,  177.  '  1,  77. 

VOL.  II.  16 


362 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


or  followed  an  unlawful  calling,  was  punishable  with  death.  From 
the  general  character  of  the  administration  of  Amasis,  we  should 
expect  to  find  him  moderating  the  severity  of  a  penal  law.  Hero- 
dotus says  that  the  law  of  Solon  which  was  in  force  in  his  time 
and  was  an  excellent  law,  was  borrowed  from  Egypt ;  but  Solon's 
law  only  punished  idleness  with  the  loss  of  civic  rights,  and  that 
perhaps  only  if  a  man  had  for  three  successive  years  been  without 
an  honest  calling1. 

Amasis  at  first  was  not  favorably  disposed  towards  the  Greeks2, 
by  whose  defeat  he  had  been  advanced  to  the  throne,  but  he  con- 
tinued them  in  his  service,  and  afterwards  removed  their  quarters 
to  Memphis,  that  they  might  be  available  against  the  population 
of  the  capital.  He  showed  himself  also  very  friendly  towards  the 
whole  Greek  nation.  He  allowed  all  who  pleased  to  inhabit  the 
city  of  Naucratis,  and  to  those  who  came  only  for  commercial  pur- 
poses, he  gave  sites  on  which  they  might  build  altars  to  their  gods. 
The  largest  and  most  illustrious  of  these  factories  was  that  which 
was  called  Hi  lien  ion,  founded  by  the  principal  states  of  Asiatic 
Greece  ;  Chios,  Teos,  Phocaea  and  Clazomenae  in  Ionia ;  Rhodes, 
Cnidus,  Halicarnassus  and  Phaselis  in  Doris  ;  and  the  single  city 
of  Mitylene  in  JEolis.  These  cities  enjoyed  exclusively  the  privi- 
lege of  appointing  the  magistrates  or  consuls  who  regulated  the 
commercial  concerns  of  the  Hellenion  ;  others  claimed  a  share, 
but  Herodotus  emphatically  declares  that  it  did  not  belong  to 
them.  ^Egina,  however,  had  independently  founded  a  tcmenos  of 
Jupiter,  the  Samians  of  Juno  and  the  Milesians  of  Apollo,  their 
respective  chief  divinities  ;  and  these  were  probably  older  than  the 
Hellenion,  as  the  states  which  founded  them  were  distinguished  in 
navigation  earlier  than  the  others.    Amasis  sent  presents  to  several 

1  Petit,  Leges  Atticse,  p.  520,  ed.  TVessel.  Herodotus  himself  speaks  of 
Solon's  visiting  Egypt  after  he  had  given  laws  to  Athens  (1,  30). 

a  $>i\t\\riv  ytvt>ntv»s  6  'A/'rt<ris  is  the  expression  of  Herodotus  (2,  177). 


THE  TWENTT -SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


363 


of  the  Grecian  temples  ;  a  gilded  image  of  Minerva  with  his  own 
picture,  to  Cyrene  ;  to  Lindus,  two  statues  of  Minerva  in  stone, 
and  a  linen  corslet  of  wonderful  workmanship.  According  to  the 
description  which  Herodotus  gives1  of  a  similar  present  made  to 
the  Lacedaemonians,  each  thread  consisted  of  360  filaments  clearly 
to  be  distinguished.  Figures  were  woven  in  the  pattern  of  the 
linen,  and  it  was  adorned  with  gold  and  cotton2.  Cotton,  being 
used  as  a  costly  material  along  with  gold  for  the  enrichment  of 
the  linen,  was  probably  of  recent  introduction  from  Ethiopia  or 
India  ;  for  it  seems  not  to  have  been  known  in  Egypt  in  earlier 
times3.  The  corslet  sent  to  Lindus  remained  to  the  time  of  Pliny, 
though  nearly  destroyed  by  the  curiosity  of  travellers,  and  the 
examination  of  it  verified  the  account  of  Herodotus4.  Another 
occasion  for  displaying  his  liberality  towards  the  Greeks  was  offered 
by  the  conflagration  of  the  temple  at  Delphi,  which  took  place 
548  B.C.  Its  restoration  was  undertaken  for  the  sum  of  300  talents 
by  the  wealthy  family  of  the  Alcmaeonidaa,  and  was  to  be  paid  for 
by  a  general  contribution  of  the  members  of  the  Amphictyonic 
confederacy.  Of  this  sum  one-fourth  part  was  allotted  to  the 
Delphians,  who  being  unable  to  raise  it  themselves,  wandered 
throughout  Greece  and  the  Grecian  settlements,  begging  for  con- 
tributions, and  visited  among  the  rest  their  countrymen  settled  in 
Egypt.  From  them  they  received  20  minae  ;  from  Amasis  1000 
talents,  about  50,000  pounds  weight  of  alum.    It  is  obtained  in 

1  Her.  3,  47. 

2  'E6vra  filv  \ivzov  kcl'i  £'J)a}v  evvpai7jx£voJvy  ov^vcov,  KtKOPjxr}atvov  Si  ^pvaoi  Kai  tip  io  i- 
vi  and  %v\ov.     (Her.  u.  S.) 

3  Jul.  Poll.  7,  75.    Plin.  K  H.  19,  1. 

4  Mirenlur  hsec  (the  fact  that  there  were  150  threads  in  one  rope  of  a 
hunting-net)  ignorantes  in  ^Egyptii  quondam  regis,  quem  Amasim  voeant, 
thorace,  in  Rhodiorura  insula  ostendi  in  templo  Minervse  ccclxv.  filis  singula 
fila  constare ;  quod  se  expertum  nuper  Romse  prodidit  Mutianus  ter  Con- 
sul, parvasque  jam  reliquias  ejus  superesse,  hae  experientium  injuria.  (N. 
H.  19,  1.) 


3G4 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


great  quantities  from  the  Oases  of  the  Libyan  Desert,  and  this  was 
reckoned  the  purest  of  any.  It  was  .of  extensive  use,  especially  in 
dyeing,  and  very  costly ;  in  later  times  the  Lipari  Islands  enjoyed 
the  monopoly  of  it,  and  acquired  incredible  riches,  says  Diodorus, 
from  this  source1.  More  recently  it  has  been  a  source  of  great 
wealth,  first  to  the  Turks,  and  afterwards  to  the  Popes,  who  for  a 
long  time  possessed  the  monopoly2. 

The  alliance  and  friendship  of  Amasis  with  Polycrates  of  Samos 
is  very  celebrated,  and  must  belong  to  the  latest  part  of  Amasis' 
reign.  Polycrates  (532  b.  c.)  had  made  himself  master  of  the 
whole  of  that  island,  having  killed  one  of  his  brothers  and  expelled 
the  other,  and  acquired  a  degree  of  power  and  splendor  which  no 
Grecian  tyrant  ever  equalled,  except  Gelon  and  Hiero  of  Syracuse3. 
The  Samians,  as  we  have  seen,  were  commercially  connected  with 
Egypt,  and  Polycrates  cultivated  the  friendship  of  Amasis.  For  a 
time  uninterrupted  success  attended  his  schemes ;  but  they  were 
carried  on  with  little  regard  for  the  rights  of  his  neighbors4,  whom 
he  invaded  and  plundered  without  scruple.  Amasis  had  marked 
his  prosperity,  and  on  occasion  of  some  new  success  was  so  con- 
vinced that  a  dreadful  reverse  must  be  preparing  for  him,  that  he 
addressed  to  him,  says  Ilerodotus,  the  following  letter: — "Amasis 
to  Polycrates.  It  is  pleasant  to  hear  of  the  prosperity  of  one  with 
whom  we  are  connected  in  friendship,  and  hospitality.  But  thy 
great  successes  displease  me,  knowing  how  envious  the  divinity  is, 

1  Diod.  5,  10.  Murray's  Africa  (2,  p.  67),  of  the  alum  found  in  the  Oasis 
of  Shelima.  Hamilton's  iEgyptiaca,  428;  Russegger,  Reise  (2,  1,  342),  of 
the  Oases  Chardseheh,  El-Dachel  and  El-Bacharieh.  A  Frenchman  in  part- 
nership with  the  Viceroy  was  carrying  on  the  manufacture  there  on  a  large 
scale  at  the  time  of  Russegger's  visit,  1836  (Reise,  u.  s.  p.  53). 

3  Beckmann's  Hist,  of  Inventions,  London,  1846,  1,  196.  The  ancient 
alumen  appears  not  to  have  been  so  well  purified  as  our  alum  from  the  sul- 
phate of  iron  which  is  mixed  with  it  in  nature. 

•  Herod.  3,  125.  *  Herod.  3,  39,  40. 


THE  TWENTr-SIXTII  DYNASTY. 


365 


and  it  is  my  wish  for  those  in  whom  I  am  interested,  that  they 
should  succeed  in  some  things  and  fail  in  others,  and  thus  experi- 
ence an  alternation  of  fortune  through  life,  rather  than  he  always 
prosperous.  For  I  have  never  yet  heard  of  any  one  who  had  been 
successful  in  everything,  who  did  not  suffer  entire  ruin  before  he 
died.  Take  my  advice,  then,  and  counteract  your  prosperity  in  this 
way;  consider  what  is  the  thing  you  value  most  and  would  be  most 
grieved  to  lose,  and  throw  that  away  in  such  a  manner  that  it  shall 
never  come  back  again  among  men.  And  if  in  future  good  and  ill 
fortune  should  not  alternate  with  you,  adopt  the  remedy  that  I 
suggest."  The  moral  of  this  letter  is  that  with  which  Herodotus 
himself  philosophized  on  history  and  human  life,  and  it  coincides 
so  exactly  with  the  address  of  Solon  to  Croesus,  in  another  part  of 
his  work,  even  to  the  phraseology1,  as  to  leave  no  doubt  that  he 
has  held  the  pen  for  Amasis,  as  he  made  himself  the  spokesman  of 
Solon.  Poly  crates  weighed  the  advice,  and  found  that  there  was 
nothing  which  it  would  grieve  him  more  to  lose  than  a  costly 
emerald  ring,  engraved  by  Theodorus  of  Samos2.  He  therefore 
ordered  a  pentecontor  to  be  manned,  rowed  out  into  the  deep  sea, 
and  in  the  presence  of  all  drew  his  ring  from  his  finger,  dropped 
it  into  the  water,  and  returned  to  his  palace  with  a  heavy  heart. 
It  was  a  notion  of  the  ancient  religions  that  one  who  was  threat- 
ened with  an  overwhelming  calamity  by  the  anger  or  envy  of  the 
gods,  might  break  the  force  of  the  blow  by  voluntarily  taking  on 

1  1,  32.  'Err  (  a  t  a  p  ev  6v  pe  to  OeTov  tt  a  v  lav  <p6  o  v  t  p  6v  re  /ecu  rapa- 
XmSes,  ivcipuros  avQpuirri'iuiv  npaypdrcov  n£pi ;  3,  40.  'E/JOt  at  aai  psydXat  tiru^i'at 
ovk  apcffKovaij  to  OeTov  tit  i  a  t  a  p  £  v  w  a>  f  e  a  t  i  <^0ovEp6v.  1,  32.  Xo^  -aw 
tos  xpriiidTof  okoituiv  tj]v  te\evt^v  kt\  dn^PficETai'  iroWoTcri  yap  6n  vTroS££as  o^fiov  b 
deds  7T  p  op  p  i  $o  vg  dvETpeipE.  3,  40.  OvScva  o?Ja  ootij  eis  t£\os  oy 
k  a  k  ai  f  £  r  e\  £  v  r  ij  a  e  Trp6ppi£ost   evtv%eo)v  to.  vavra. 

9  Plin.  N.  H.  37,  1,  2.  "  Sardonychem  earn  gemmam  fuisse  constat ; 
ostenduntque  Rorase,  si  credimus,  Concordia?  delubro,  cornu  aureo  Augusti 
dono  inclusam." 


3G6 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


himself  some  minor  evil,  and  thus  compound  his  debt  to  Fate.  But 
in  this  case  the  composition  was  refused.  Five  or  six  days  after,  a 
fisherman  who  had  caught  a  fish  of  unusual  size  and  beauty,  car- 
ried it  as  a  present  to  Polycrates.  When  the  servants  opened  it, 
they  found  in  the  stomach  the  lost  ring,  and  in  great  joy  brought 
it  to  their  master,  who,  struck  with  the  ominous  character  of  the 
event,  wrote  a  full  description  of  all  that  had  happened  to  Amasis 
in  Egypt.  He  perceived  that  the  god  was  bent  upon  the  ruin  of 
Polycrates,  and  sent  a  herald  to  Samos  to  renounce  his  friendship, 
in  order,  says  Herodotus,  that  when  some  terrible  calamity  should 
befall  him,  he  might  not  be  grieved  by  thinking  of  him  as  his 
friend.  The  story  of  the  ring  recovered  by  means  of  the  fish,  is 
one  of  the  traditionary  stock  of  fictions  whose  origin  is  not  to  be 
traced.  Amasis  may  have  had  reasons  of  policy  for  renouncing  the 
friendship  of  Polycrates.  He  aspired  to  be  master  of  Ionia  and  the 
islands1,  and  voluntarily  offered  a  naval  armament  to  Cambyses,  for 
the  invasion  of  Egypt,  which  was  on  the  point  of  taking  place  when 
Amasis  died2.  And  though  Herodotus  has  courteously  omitted 
any  intimation  in  the  letter,  that  the  abuse  of  power  was  a  sure 
means  of  drawing  down  retribution,  Amasis  cannot  have  been  igno- 
rant that  Polycrates  was  guilty  of  acts  of  tyranny,  very  likely  to 
bring  about  his  ruin.  The  unromantic  account  of  Diodorus  is,  that 
Amasis  renounced  the  friendship  of  Polycrates,  on  finding  that  he 
paid  no  regard  to  an  embassy  which  he  sent,  exhorting  him  to 
abstain  from  his  outrages  on  his  own  fellow-citizens,  and  on  stran- 
gers who  resorted  to  Samos3.  The  fulfilment  of  the  augury  took 
place  a  few  years  later,  when  Polycrates  was  crucified  by  the  Per- 
sian Orcetes,  into  whose  power  he  had  put  himself,  in  spite  of  the 
warning  of  dreams  and  oracles4. 

Like  others  whom  the  Greeks  classed  under  the  general  name 


1  Her.  3,  122. 
8  Diod.  1,  95. 


2  Her.  3,  44. 

4  Her.  3,  124,  b.  c.  523. 


THE  TWEXTY-SIXTH  DYXASTY. 


36? 


of  tyrants,  Polycrates  collected  poets  and  men  of  letters  around 
him,  and  is  said  to  have  formed  a  library1.  One  of  the  most  illus- 
trious of  these  was  Pythagoras,  a  native  of  Samos,  of  Phoenician 
parentage,  who  is  said  to  have  visited  Egypt,  recommended  by 
Polycrates  to  the  protection  of  Amasis.  Of  the  wide  peregrinations 
attributed  to  this  philosopher,  which  reached  even  to  India  and 
Gaul,  his  residence  in  Egypt  is  the  best-attested  portion.  The 
authors  on  whom  we  are  compelled  to  rely  for  his  history  lived  so 
long  after  his  own  time,  and  there  is  so  much  of  mystery  and 
exaggeration  in  their  accounts,  that  we  know  not  what  reliance  is 
to  be  placed  on  the  stories  of  the  severe  trials  which  the  priesthood 
made  him  undergo,  and  his  final  success  in  obtaining  initiation  into 
all  their  secrets.  But  that  he  had  resided  long  in  Egypt,  and 
become  acquainted  both  with  their  religion  and  their  science,  we 
learn  on  surer  evidence,  the  character  of  his  own  philosophy  and 
institutions.  Herodotus  all  but  names  him  as  having  derived  from 
Egypt  the  doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis,  of  which  we  find  no  trace 
before  in  Greek  religion  or  philosophy2.  His  knowledge  of  medi- 
cine, and  strict  system  of  dietetic  rules,  lead  us  to  conclude  that  he 
had  been  trained  in  Egypt,  where  medicine  had  attained  the  highest 
perfection,  and  dietary  rules  had  been  systematized  with  the  great- 
est success.  His  attainments  in  geometry  correspond  with  the 
ascertained  fact  that  Egypt  was  the  birthplace  of  that  art.  He  is 
distinguished  in  the  history  of  philosophy  for  an  attempt,  happily 
unsuccessful,  because  uncongenial  to  the  Grecian  mind,  to  make 
knowledge  a  mystery,  to  obstruct  the  approach  to  it  by  the  inter- 
position of  long  and  repulsive  discipline,  by  investing  the  teacher 

1  Athen.  Epit  lib.  1,  p.  3.  "Wolf,  without  reason,  throws  doubt  on  this 
statement  (Proleg.  cxlv.  note  7). 

2  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  prohibition  to  bury  in  woollen  as  belonging  to 
the  orgies  which  were  called  Orphic  and  Bacchic,  but  were  really  Egyptian 
and  Pythagorean  rites  (2,  81) ;  but  this  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  belief 
in  the  transmigration  of  the  soul. 


368 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


with  a  supernatural  character  to  exalt  his  precepts  into  oracles,  and 
to  place  the  governing  power  of  the  state  in  the  hands  of  an  order 
who  had  been  separated  from  their  fellow-citizens  and  inspired  with 
an  esprit  de  corps  by  their  education.  In  these  respects  the  Pytha- 
gorean school  resembled  the  Egyptian  priesthood  of  this  age,  as  far 
as  the  different  circumstances  of  Greece  and  Egypt  would  allow 
imitation,  and  there  was  no  other  model  in  the  ancient  world  that 
he  could  have  copied1. 

Solon  must  have  come  to  Egypt2  before  the  reign  of  Amasis,  if 
his  visit  preceded  his  legislation ;  a  supposition  not  necessary  to 
account  for  the  similarity  between  his  laws  and  those  of  Egypt. 
Tradition  related  that  he  had  been  the  companion  of  Psenophis,  the 
priest  of  Ileliopolis,  and  Sonchis,  the  priest  of  Sais,  two  of  the  most 
learned  of  their  order,  and  philosophized  with  them3.  His  object 
would  be  very  different  from  that  of  Pythagoras,  not  to  dive  into 
religious  mysteries,  but  to  learn  practical  wisdom,  such  as  he  might 
have  applied  to  the  benefit  of  his  country  on  his  return,  had  he  not 
found  its  liberties  overthrown  by  Pisistratus.  If  we  may  believe 
Plato,  however,  he  brought  home  thence  a  wondrous  tale  of  the 
ancient  glories  of  Athens,  in  times  some  thousand  years  prior  to 
Phoroneus   and  Niobe  and  Deucalion's  flood,  when  she  had 

1  According  to  Pliny,  N*.  II.  36,  9,  Semenpserteus  was  the  name  of  the  ting 
in  whose  reign  Pythagoras  came  to  Egypt.  The  Bamberg  MS.  reads  Spe- 
mctnepserphreo,  whence  Bunsen  elicits  Psameticho  Ne-pherphreo.  (UYkun- 
denbuch,  p.  85,  Germ.) 

a  Herodotus  (I,  29,  SO)  represents  him  as  visiting  Egypt  after  his  legisla- 
tion (594  b.  a),  but  does  not  expressly  say  that  he  was  there  in  the  reign  of 
Amasis,  who  came  to  the  throne  in  570  B.C.,  although  his  words  (2,  177) 
seem  to  imply  not  only  this,  but  that  Amasis  was  a  legislator  before  Solon. 
Grote  and  Niebuhr  have  remarked  that  there  is  an  error  of  forty  years  in 
Herodotus'  chronology  of  this  period  (Grote,  3,  205).  There  i?  a  similar 
variation  of  forty  years  in  the  assigned  age  of  Pythagoras.  See  Fynes  Clin- 
ton, F.  H.  vol.  2,  p.  9. 

3  Plut.  SoL  26.     A.oyto>TaTots  ovai  tuIv  Up£on>  avvt^iKoao^at. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


369 


repelled  an  invasion  of  tlie  inhabitants  of  the  since  submerged 
island  of  Atlantis,  who  had  overrun  the  whole  of  the  west,  as  far 
as  Egypt  and  Tyrrhenia1.  There  is  much  in  the  story  which 
betrays  the  desire  of  the  priests  of  Sais  at  once  to  ingratiate  them- 
selves with  the  Athenians,  by  finding  parallels  between  Attic  and 
Egyptian  usages,  and  to  maintain  their  own  superiority ;  and  no 
historical  inference  can  be  drawn  from  any  part  of  it.  Yet  the 
mention  of  the  impossibility  of  navigating  the  Atlantic,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  mud  produced  by  the  subsidence  of  the  island, 
deserves  notice,  in  reference  rather  to  the  age  of  Plato  than  of 
Solon.  We  have  seen  that  after  the  time  of  Herodotus  it  became 
the  established  opinion  that  Africa  could  not  be  circumnavigated, 
owing  to  some  obstruction  vaguely  described.  The  modern  navi- 
gator finds  neither  mud  nor  shallows  nor  dead  calms,  but  the  sea- 
weed which  covers  the  ocean  south  of  the  Azores  really  does  impede 
navigation,  and  would  have  stopped  the  enterprise  of  Columbus, 
had  he  not  skilfully  turned  the  terror  of  his  crew  into  an  encourage- 
ment, by  representing  it  as  a  proof  that  land  was  near2.  Should 
it  hereafter  be  ascertained  that  a  ridge  now  covered  by  the  Atlantic 
ocean  once  joined  the  two  worlds,  the  tale  of  the  priest  of  Sais,  or 
of  Plato,  will  only  be  an  example  of  a  guess  curiously  fulfilled,  like 
Seneca's  prophecy  of  the  discovery  of  a  new  world. 

Among  the  temples  enlarged  or  decorated  by  Amasis,  that  of 
Minerva  at  Sais  was  particularly  distinguished.  He  erected  there 
propylsea,  which,  both  for  height  and  size  and  the  magnitude  and 
the  quality  of  the  stones  employed,  surpassed  all  others.  These  he 
brought  from  the  quarries  of  Memphis,  as  well  as  the  colossal 
figures  and  androsphinxes  with  which  the  dromos  was  adorned. 
A  monolithal  shrine  of  granite  from  the  quarries  of  Elephantine 
excited  the  especial  admiration  of  Herodotus.  Two  thousand  men 
were  appointed  to  bring  it  down  the  Nile  ;  from  Elephantine  to 


1  Tim.  iii.  25,  Steph. 


a  See  Grote's  Greece,  3,  382,  note. 
16* 


310 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Sais  was  an  ordinary  navigation  of  only  twenty  days,  but  in  this 
case  three  years  were  occupied,  probably  because  the  immense 
weight  made  it  impossible  to  float  it  except  during  the  season  of 
the  high  Nile.  Its  height  was  above  thirty  feet ;  its  depth,  from 
front  to  bach,  twelve  feet ;  its  breadth  twenty-one1.  After  all  the 
cost  and  labor  bestowed  on  its  extraction  and  conveyance,  it  was 
not  erected  in  the  temple  of  Minerva :  as  they  were  drawing  it  in, 
the  superintendent  of  the  works  uttered  a  groan  through  weariness 
of  the  labor  and  the  thought  of  the  time  that  had  been  expended ; 
and  Amasis,  either  because  he  deemed  this  ominous,  or  because  one 
of  the  workmen  had  been  killed  in  the  process  of  moving  it  on 
levers,  would  not  allow  it  to  be  drawn  any  further.  When  Hero- 
dotus visited  Egypt,  it  remained  lying  on*  the  ground  before  the 
temple.  There  remains  at  Tel-et-mai,  the  ancient  Thmuis  in.  the 
Delta,  a  monolithal  shrine  of  the  granite  of  Syene,  bearing  the  name 
of  Amasis,  of  similar  form  to  that  which  Herodotus  describes  ;  but 
its  length  is  only  twenty-one  feet  nine  inches,  and  its  breadth  thir- 
teen feet2.  Amasis  erected  also  a  colossus  seventy-five  feet  in  height 
at  Memphis,  before  the  temple  of  Ptah,  and  two  of  granite,  twenty 
feet  in  height,  one  on  each  side  of  the  inner  sanctuary.  One  of  the 
same  size  at  Sais  was  prostrate  like  the  great  colossus.  Judging 
from  analogy,  we  may  suppose  that  these  were  colossal  statues  of 
himself,  which  the  Persian  conqueror  of  Egypt  threw  down,  among 
his  other  outrages  on  the  memory  of  Amasis.  He  also  built  a 
large  and  splendid  temple  to  Isis  at  Memphis3.  Inscriptions  are 
found  on  the  rocks  at  Syene  which  confirm  the  accounts  of  Hero- 
dotus respecting  the  extensive  excavations  made  there  by  this  king 
for  his  various  public  works. 

1  See  note  on  Kenrick's  Herod.  2,  115.  He  gives  its  measures  as  it  lay 
on  the  ground  ;  consequently  what  he  calls  the  length  was  the  height,  and 
so  of  the  other  dimensions. 

2  Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  191 ;  Mod.  Eg.  and  Thebes,  1,  440. 
Champ.  Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  2,  114.  3  Her.  2,  176. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


371 


His  reign  lasted,  according  to  the  lists  and  Herodotus1,  forty- 
four  years ;  and  Rosellini  has  found  a  tablet  in  the  quarries  of 
Mokattam,  bearing  his  name  and  this  date2.  His  death  took  place 
in  the  year  526  B.C.,  when  his  kingdom  was  on  the  point  of  being 
invaded  by  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus. 

Cyrus,  the  grandson  of  Astyages,  the  son  of  the  Cyaxares  by 
whom  Nineveh  was  besieged,  had  united  the  empire  of  the  Medes 
with  that  of  the  Persians,  and  reduced  Asia  Minor,  Lydia,  and  the 
Grecian  colonies  into  subjection.  Babylon  alone  remained  in 
Western  Asia  as  an  independent  state.  It  is  remarkable  that 
Herodotus  says  nothing  of  the  expansion  of  the  power  of  Babylon 
in  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  represents  Nitocris,  queen  of 
the  Babylonians,  as  alarmed  at  the  growing  empire  of  the  Medes, 
after  their  capture  of  Nineveh3.  It  should  seem  that  immediately 
after  this  event,  accomplished  by  the  alliance  of  the  Medes  and 
Babylonians,  the  Medes  turned  their  arms  towards  Lydia,  and 
left  Babylon  in  possession  of  the  greater  part  of  the  territories 
dependent  on  Nineveh  ;  for  the  king  against  whom  Cyrus  advanced 
is  called,  not  king  of  Babylon,  but  king  of  Assyria4.  The  name 
of  the  queen  Nitocris  is  so  entirely  Egyptian,  that  we  cannot  hesi- 
tate to  consider  her  as  a  daughter  of  the  Pharaohs5.    The  wife 

1  3  10. 

2  Mon.  Stor.  2,  152.  It  has  been  said  by  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  (M.  and 
C.  1,  179),  that  the  title  Melek  is  given  to  Amasis  in  some  of  his  legends. 
Dr.  "Wiseman  (Lectures  on  Science  and  Revealed  Religion,  page  301)  says, 
that  Amasis  on  his  monuments  never  receives  the  Egyptian  titles  of  royalty, 
but  instead  of  a  prrenomen  the  Semitic  title  of  Melek.  This  is  a  mistake  ; 
Amasis  has  the  usual  titles,  "Son  of  the  Sun,"  <fec.  Malek  is  found  over 
some  shields  bearing  his  name,  but  they  may  belong  to  the  Amasis  men- 
tioned by  Herodotus  (4,  167),  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Darius.  See  Sharpe, 
Hist,  of  Egypt,  plates  190,  191. 

'  Her.  1,  185.  Tf/v  Mfj<k>»'  dptHaa  ap-^hv  ntyi\r)v  tz  ko\  ovk  arptii'i^ovaav  aWa  re 
Qpupnjicva  aarea  avroT<n}  iv  6i  Sr)  kcii  rr/v  NTi/ov,  npodpvXd^aro  oaa  hfovaro  ^.akiara. 

*  Her.  1,  188.  8  Philostr.  Vit.  Apoll.  1,  25,  calls  her  a  Median 


372 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


of  Psammiticlius  L,  and  the  daughter  of  Psainrais  or  Psammiti- 
chus  II.  both  bear  this  name1.  Coupling  this  circumstance  with  the 
absence  of  all  hostility  between  Egypt  and  Babylon  after  the 
invasion  of  Nebuchadnezzar2,  it  seems  probable  that  Nebuchad- 
nezzar had  married  an  Egyptian  princess.  The  succession  of  the 
Babylonian  kings  is  thus  given  by  Ptolemy,  whose  authority  must 
be  considered  as  the  highest : — 

Years. 

1.  N abocolassar  (Nebuchadnezzar)  43 

2.  Illoarapamtjs  2 

3.  Nerigassolassar  (Neriglissar)  4 

4.  Nabonadius  17 

The  Nabonadius  of  Ptolemy  is  evidently  the  Labynetus  of  Hero- 
dotus, the  Belshazzar  of  Daniel,  and,  according  to  Herodotus,  the 
son  of  Nitocris.  Herodotus  calls  her  husband  also  Labynetus, 
which  does  not  agree  with  Ptolemy  ;  but  he  appears  to  have 
known  only  two  Babylonian  kings,  both  of  whom  he  calls  Laby- 
netus3. In  what  relation  Illoaradamus  (Evilmerodach,  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's son)  stood  to  Neriglissar  we  do  not  learn  from  Ptolemy, 
but  Berosus4  informs  us  that  Neriglissar  was  husband  of  his  sister, 
and  put  him  to  death.  It  seems  probable  therefore  that  Nitocris 
was  the  widow  of  Nebuchadnezzar5 ;  that  after  the  death  of  Neri- 
glissar, who  reigned  but  four  years,  she  was  regent,  or  guardian, 
of  her  son  Nabonadius,  and  that  foreseeing  the  impending  attack 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  130,  137. 
a  See  p.  352  of  this  vol. 

9  Labynetus  the  Babylonian,  whom  he  mentions  (1,  74)  as  making  peace 
between  the  Lydians  and  Medes,  must  be  Nebuchadnezzar. 
4  Jos.  Apion.  1,  20. 

6  From  Jeremiah  xxvii.  7,  it  has  been  inferred  that  Nebuchadnezzar's 
grandson  was  to  lose  his  power,  and  Evilmerodach  may  have  been  the  hus- 
band of  Nitocris  and  father  of  Labynetus.  But  perhaps  "  son's  son  "  may 
only  mean  a  short  succession,  as  HalSes  naiiuv  rot  kcv  licrSmaBt  yevwvrai  in 
Homer,  an  indefinitely  long  one. 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH  DYNASTY. 


373 


of  Cyrus,  she  performed  those  works  which  Herodotus  describes 
and  praises  for  the  protection  of  Babylonia  against  invasion.  They 
are  such  as  might  naturally  suggest  themselves  to  a  native  of 
Egypt.  That  country  had  been  rendered  impracticable  for  the 
operations  of  cavalry  by  its  canals.  The  Euphrates  just  above 
Babylon  had  previously  flowed  in  a  straight  channel ;  she  gave  it 
such  a  winding  and  interlaced  course,  that,  according  to  Herodotus 
(1,  185),  in  descending  in  a  boat  you  were  brought  thrice  to  the 
same  place,  and  on  the  third  day  were  no  further  advanced  than 
on  the  first.  She  raised  an  embankment  along  the  course  of  the 
river,  resembling  that  by  which  Memphis  was  protected  ;  and  a 
reservoir  like  that  of  Mceris  below  the  city  to  receive  the  super- 
fluous waters  of  the  inundation.  These  works  were  evidently 
intended  to  answer  a  double  purpose,  to  regulate  the  operations  of 
the  river,  and  render  the  country  inaccessible  and  difficult  for  an 
invading  army.  Another  of  her  works  was  the  construction  of  a 
bridge,  consisting  of  piers  on  which  planks  were  laid,  for  joining 
the  two  parts  of  Babylon  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Euphrates. 
We  know  from  the  monuments  that  the  Egyptians  had  constructed 
such  bridges  some  centuries  before  this  time1.  All  her  precautions, 
however,  were  unavailing  ;  Cyrus  defeated  the  Babylonians  in  the 
field,  and  afterwards  captured  the  city  by  drawing  off  the  waters 
of  the  river,  and  entering  along  its  bed.  This  was  in  the  year 
538  b.c.  Xo  hostility  against  Egypt2  followed  the  conquest  of 
Babylon  ;  the  attention  of  Cyrus  was  drawn  towards  the  nomadic 
nations  on  his  north-eastern  frontier,  and  in  an  expedition  against 
the  Massagetae,  he  lost  his  life  in  the  year  529  b.c.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Cambyses,  who  almost  immediately  began  to 
prepare  for  an  expedition  against  Egypt. 

1  See  p.  218  of  this  vol. 

8  The  assertion  of  Xenophon  in  his  Cyropsedia,  1,  1,  that  Cyrus  conquered 
Egypt,  is  generally  and  justly  rejected  by  historical  critics. 


374 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Twenty-seventh  Dynasty.    Eight  Persian  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Cambyses,  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign  over  Persia 


became  king  of  Egypt,  and  reigned     ....  6 

2.  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes   36 

3.  Xerxeb  the  Great   21 

4.  Artabaxus   7  months. 

5.  Arta  XERXES   41 

6.  Xerxes   2  " 

7.  sogdianus   7  " 

8.  Darius,  son  of  Xerxes   19 

124  4 


No  single  or  personal  cause  is  at  all  necessary  to  account  for  an 
attack  on  a  wealthy  country  like  Egypt,  b}T  a  newly-risen  and 
aggressive  power  such  as  that  of  the  Medo-Persians,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  "  wrould  not  rest1."  In  all  recent  encounters 
between  the  armies  of  Egypt  and  those  of  the  great  Asiatic  states, 
Egypt  had  been  worsted,  if  we  except  the  invasion  of  Sennacherib, 
whose  defeat  the  Egyptians  themselves  regarded  as  a  miracle. 
Popular  tradition,  however,  supplied  many  such  causes.  Accord- 
ing to  that  which  was  most  evidently  devised  in  order  to  soothe 
the  national  pride  of  the  Egyptians,  Cambyses  was  the  son  of 
Nitetis,  a  daughter  of  Apries,  whom  Cyrus  had  taken  as  a  secon- 
dary wife — whereas,  says  Herodotus,  it  is  notorious  that  no  son  of 
a  secondary  wife  could  succeed  to  the  throne  of  Persia,  and  that 
Cambyses  was  the  son  of  Cassandane,  the  daughter  of  Pharnaspes, 
a  man  of  the  Achsernenid  family.  The  Persian  story  was,  that 
Cambyses  had  sent  to  Egypt  to  demand  in  marriage  a  daughter 
of  Amasis.  who,  knowing  she  would  be  only  a  secondary  wife  and 
not  his  queen,  substituted  a  beautiful  daughter  of  Apries,  and  that 
Cambyses  discovering  the  fraud,  wras  so  enraged  that  he  deter- 

1  Ovk  drpt^ovaav.    See  note  3,  p.  371. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


375 


mined  to  invade  Egypt.  This  story  is  refuted  by  chronology. 
Apries  had  died  more  than  forty  years  before,  and  his  daughter1, 
though  arrayed,  as  Herodotus  says,  "  in  royal  vestments  and  gold," 
could  never  have  gained  the  affections  of  the  youthful  monarch,  as 
the  story  implies.  Another  version  was  that  Nitetis  was  the  wife, 
not  of  Cambyses,  but  of  Cyrus.  A  Persian  woman  visiting  his 
harem,  was  struck  with  the  beauty  of  the  children  of  Cassandane, 
and  praised  them  greatly  to  their  mother.  "  Yet  would  you 
believe  it,"  said  Cassandane,  "  Cyrus  neglects  me,  the  mother  of 
such  children  as  these,  to  pay  honor  to  an  Egyptian  interloper2." 
On  this,  Cambyses,  her  elder  son,  a  boy  of  ten  years  of  age, 
exclaimed,  "  Therefore,  mother,  when  I  am  a  man,  I  will  turn 
Egypt  upside  down  ;"  and  recollecting  his  promise  when  he  came 
to  the  throne,  he  prepared  to  invade  that  country. 

Among  these  various  stories,  one  thing  alone  appears  to  have 
the  sanction  of  Herodotus.  An  Egyptian,  at  the  request  of  Cyrus, 
had  been  sent  to  him  by  Amasis,  as  the  most  skilful  oculist  in  the 
country.  This  was  equivalent  to  a  perpetual  separation  from  his 
wife  and  children ;  and  either  in  revenge,  or  in  the  hope  of  revisit- 
ing Egypt,  if  war  should  result  from  the  refusal  of  Arnasis,  he 
urged  Cambyses  to  demand  his  daughter.  The  demand  was  pro- 
bably refused — the  Persians  said,  eluded.  It  happened  about  the 
time  when  Cambyses  was  preparing  his  expedition,  that  Amasis 
had  given  offence  to  Phanes  of  Halicarnassus,  one  of  the  com- 
manders of  his  mercenary  troops,  a  man  of  great  valor  and  ability. 
He  had  got  on  shipboard,  intending  to  join  Cambyses,  but  Amasis, 
knowing  his  estimation  among  his  auxiliaries,  and  his  accurate 
acquaintance  with  everything  relating  to  Egypt,  sent  a  trireme  in 
pursuit  of  him.     The  eunuch  who  had  the  command  of  the  vessel 

Herodotus  calls  her  h  naTg,  but  we  have  before  had  occasion  to  observe 
how  little  he  troubles  himself  with  chronological  difficulties. 
a  Tijv  air'  A.iyvnrov  iniKTrirov  iv  npj  riBsrai  (3,  3). 


376 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


overtook  and  seized  him  in  Lycia,  but  be  made  his  guards  intoxi- 
cated, and  escaped  to  Cambyses.  The  Persian  king  was  then 
deliberating  how  he  should  pass  the  Desert  between  Egypt  and 
Palestine,  and  Phanes  not  only  gave  him  information  on  this 
point,  but  laid  open  to  him  the  whole  state  of  Amasis'  affairs. 
This  Desert  of  sand  extends  from  Kan  Iones  (Jenysus),  about  five 
or  six  hours'  travelling  to  the  south-west  of  Gaza,  to  Salahieh  in 
Egypt.  Along  this  distance  of  107  geographical  miles  there  is  no 
trace  of  vegetation,  nor  any  water  fit  for  drinking ;  the  first  sixty- 
miles,  from  Kan  Iones  to  the  commencement  of  the  Casian  Mount 
at  the  angle  of  the  coast,  are  entirely  destitute  of  water1.  The 
sands  of  the  Isthmus  are  loose  and  shifting2,  and  the  track  was 
marked  by  tall  poles.  The  Casian  Mount,  on  which  a  temple  of 
Jupiter  stood,  was  only  a  ridge  of  sandy  downs,  somewhat  higher 
than  the  adjacent  coast3.  The  sea-coast  anciently  possessed  by 
the  Philistines  as  far  south  as  Jenysus  was  at  this  time  in  the 
power  of  the  Arabians,  and  from  Jenysus  to  the  confines  of  Egypt, 
of  the  Syrians  of  Palestine4.  The  Arabians  were  Idumeans,  whd 
had  encroached  upon  the  territory  of  the  Jews6,  and  extended  them- 
selves from  Petra  and  the  yElanitic  Gulf  to  the  Mediterranean. 
The  Syrians,  according  to  the  use  of  that  name  elsewhere  by  Hero- 
dotus, must  have  been  Jews,  some  of  those  fugitives  who,  as  we 
learn  from  various  passages  in  the  prophets,  had  settled  them- 
selves, at  the  time  of  the  Captivity,  along  the  frontiers  of  Egypt, 

1  'AwSpdv  Suvios.    (Her.  3,  5.) 

2  Nisi  calami  defixi  regunt  via  non  reperitur,  subinde  aura  vestigia  ope- 
riente.    (Plin.  N.  EL  6,  33.) 

3  Strabo,  16,  p.  760.    Lucan,  Phars.  8,  539. 

4  'A~d  fyoivtxris  [i^xP1  01''PW,'  r^>v  Ka(5urjos  n6\io$)  fj  earl  Hvpoov  t£>v  Y\.(iXaiariv(7)v 
Ka^eJ/jtvwv,  and  ravrrji  to.  Efinopia  ra  inl  8a\air<TT)S  f^XP1  ^l^^^ov  nj\t6s  sort  tov 
'Ao'i0iov,  and  6i  'Irjvvaov,  avrts  Evpwv  \^XPl  "Eep#Mi>t&iS  Xt/»»"?f.  (Her.  3,  5.)  By 
"the  boundaries  of  the  city  Cadytis"  Herodotus  probably  means  Joppa, 
which  was  the  port  of  Jerusalem.    (Strabo,  16,  759.) 

5  Ezek.  xxxvi.  5. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DFNASTT. 


377 


from  the  neighborhood  of  Heliopolis  to  the  sea.  The  Syriac 
language  was  spoken  there,  even  in  the  days  of  Jerome1. 

Thanes  advised  Cambyses  to  avail  himself  of  the  aid  of  the 
Idumaaans  for  accomplishing  his  passage  through  the  Desert. 
Without  their  friendship  he  could  have  obtained  no  adequate  sup- 
ply of  water2 :  he  had  an  auxiliary  fleet  of  Asiatic  Greeks,  Ionians 
and  ^Eolians  whom  his  father  had  reduced ;  but  the  nature  of  the 
coast  precludes  the  possibility  that  an  army  should  be  supplied  by 
a  fleet  accompanying  its  progress.  It  is  destitute  of  harbors,  and 
the  shore  is  bordered  by  shifting  sands,  which  appear  firm,  but  give 
way  under  the  foot3.  The  Egyptian  kings  had  made  no  provision 
for  a  supply  of  water  in  this  Desert,  whose  sands  were  a  better  bul- 
wark to  their  kingdom  than  any  wall  or  trench4.  Cambyses 
entered  into  a  treaty  for  this  purpose  with  the  Idumseans.  Accord- 
ing to  their  usage,  it  was  ratified  by  the  representatives  of  the  two 
contracting  parties  allowing  a  vein  to  be  opened  with  a  sharp  stone 
in  one  of  their  hands,  beside  the  middle  finger.  With  a  shred 
from  the  outer  garment  of  each  dipped  in  the  blood,  the  person 
who  officiated  then  anointed  seven  stones  placed  in  the  midst5, 
and  called  on  Dionysus  and  Urania  by  the  names  of  Orotal  and 
Alilat  to  sanction  the  pledge6.    Different  accounts  were  given  of 

1  Hieron.  ad  Is.  19,  18.  "Ostracinam  et  ceteras  juxta  Rhinocolurarn  et 
Casiuui  civitates  usque  hodie  in  ^crypto  lingua  Canaanitide,  hoc  est  Syra, 
loqui  manifestum  est"    See  p.  269  of  this  vol.  note  *  2  Herod.  3,  88. 

s  From  Strabo  (16,  758)  it  seems  as  if  there  were  a  tide  here  as  in  the 
Syrtes,  and  several  other  hays  of  the  Mediterranean,  which  increased  the 
danger  of  passing,  especially  as  they  were  of  irregular  occurrence.  See  iu 
Diod.  20,  73  tseq.  the  account  of  the  expedition  of  Antigonus,  and  the  dan- 
ger to  which  his  fleet  was  exposed. 

4  Rennell's  Geogr.  of  Herodotus,  1,  339. 

B  Compare  Gen.  xxi.  28.  "To  swear"  in  Hebrew  is  literally  "to  seven" 
S^tE*  Traces  of  this  practice  of  taking  an  oath  before  a  stone  were  found 
at  Athens.    (Poll.  Onom.  viii.  9,  86.) 

8  Probably  the  Sun  and  Moon,  who  appear  from  Job  xxxi.  26,  27,  to  have 
been  worshipped  in  Idumrea,  the  country  of  the  patriarch. 


378 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  manner  in  which  the  necessary  quantity  of  water  was  sup- 
plied. It  was  said  that  a  river  had  been  conveyed  through  leather 
hose  into  three  reservoirs  on  different  parts  of  the  line  of  march. 
But  no  such  river  existed  anywhere  within  reach,  and  it  appears 
that  a  great  number  of  camels  were  laden  with  water-skins,  and 
driven  by  the  Idumaeans  to  those  points  in  the  Desert  at  which 
the  army  of  Cambyses  would  halt.  The  Book  of  Job  affords  a 
proof  that  the  Idumaeans  possessed  very  numerous  herds  of  camels, 
which  in  this  age  were  unknown,  except  as  foreign  animals,  on  the 
western  side  of  the  Isthmus  of  Suez1.  The  Persians  immediately 
took  measures  to  secure  a  regular  passage,  by  laying  down  vessels 
of  earthen-ware  beside  the  track,  which  were  filled  with  water2  from 
the  Nile. 

Amasis  died  (525  b.c.)  while  Cambyses  was  preparing  his  expe- 
dition3, and  had  been  embalmed  and  consigned  to  the  tomb  which 
he  had  constructed  for  himself  in  the  temple  of  Minerva  at  Sais. 
His  son  Pbammenitus  assembled  his  Greek  and  Egyptian  forces, 
and  awaited  the  approach  of  the  Persians  in  his  camp  near  Pelu- 
sium.  Before  the  armies  engaged,  the  Ionians  and  Carians  took 
a  cruel  revenge  on  Phanes,  by  whose  treachery  the  enemy  had 
been  enabled  to  pass  the  Desert.  His  children,  whom  he  had  left 
behind  him  in  Egypt,  were  brought  out,  one  at  a  time,  into  the 
space  between  the  camps  in  view  of  their  father,  their  throats  cut, 

1  See  Bitter,  Asien,  13,  757. 

2  Tliis  practice  the  Xabathoean  Arabs  also  used.  (Diod.  19,  94.)  They 
buried  pots  full  of  rain-water  in  the  Desert,  in  places  known  only  to  them- 
selves.   See  Renncll,  u.  s. 

3  A  passage  of  Theopompus,  preserved  by  Longinus,  sect.  43,  and  describ- 
ing the  KaralSacns  of  some  Persian  king  into  Egypt,  has  been  referred  by 
Toup  (7.  c.)  and  Sch weigh aeuser  (ad  Athen.  2,  67)  to  the  expedition  of  Cam- 
byses. But  the  description  evidently  belongs  to  a  much  later  period  of  the 
Persian  Monarchy,  nor  is  it  easy  to  conceive  how  the  reign  of  Cambyses 
should  come  within  the  scope  of  any  work  of  Theopompus,  who  wrote 
a  History  of  the  latter  part  of  the  Peloponnesian  war  and  the  reign  of 
Philip. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


379 


and  the  blood  which  was  received  into  a  goblet,  mixed  with  wine 
and  water,  and  drunk  by  the  auxiliaries.  "  And  so,"  says  the  his- 
torian, "  they  went  to  battle1." 

The  calamitous  issue  of  the  battle  had  been  portended  to  the 
Egyptians  by  the  fall  of  a  shower  of  rain  at  Thebes2 ;  it  was  obsti- 
nate, and  attended  with  great  slaughter  on  both  sides,  but  ulti- 
mately the  Persians  triumphed,  and  the  Egyptians  fled  in  disorder 
to  Memphis.  The  field  remained  strewed  with  skulls  in  the  time  of 
Herodotus,  and  those  of  the  Egyptians  could  be  distinguished  from 
the  Persians  by  their  superior  hardness  (a  fact  confirmed  by  the  mum- 
mies), the  result,  as  he  thought,  of  the  practice  of  shaving  the  head 
from  infancy.  We  read  of  no  outrages  or  acts  of  cruelty  committed 
by  Cambyses  on  occasion  of  his  victory  ;  he  sent  a  Mitylenean  vessel, 
with  a  Persian  herald  on  board,  to  Memphis  to  propose  a  pacifica- 
tion. The  Egyptians,  as  soon  as  they  saw  it  approaching,  rushed 
down  in  a  body,  destroyed  the  ship,  hacked  the  crew  to  pieces,  and 
exposed  their  mutilated  limbs  on  the  wall.  Cambyses  immediately 
formed  the  siege  of  Memphis,  which  held  out  for  a  considerable 
time,  but  ultimately  surrendered.  Ten  days  after  its  capture,  2C00 
Egyptian  youths  were  led  out  to  be  put  to  death,  in  reprisal  for 
the  200  men  of  the  Mitylenean  vessel  whom  the  people  of  Mem- 
phis had  massacred.  This  was  no  sudden  act  of  furious  revenge 
on  the  part  of  Cambyses  ;  the  royal  judges' had  decided  that  a 
tenfold  retribution  must  take  place.  Darius  without  such  provo- 
cation empaled  3000  of  the  most  eminent  Babylonians3.  The  law 
of  reprisals  is  terrible  in  its  operation,  falling  on  the  innocent 
instead  of  the  guilty,  or  at  best  involving  both  ;  but  it  is  the  ultima 
ratio  which  upholds  the  law  of  nations,  clearly  violated  by  the 

1  According  to  Polysenus  (7,  9)  Cambyses  used  a  stratagem,  placing  in 
front  of  his  line,  dogs,  sheep,  cats,  ibises  and  other  animals  held  sacred  by 
the  Egyptians,  and  thus  preventing  them  from  using  their  missiles  against 
the  Persians  as  they  approached. 

2  Her.  3,  10.  8  Herod.  3,159. 


380 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Egyptians.  Herodotus  thus  relates  the  scene  which  passed.  I 
regret  the  necessity  of  giving  his  narrative  in  any  other  language 
than  his  own  : — 

"  Ten  days  after  Memphis  had  surrendered,  Cambyses  brought 
out  Psammenitus,  who  had  been  six  months  king  of  Egypt,  and 
seating  him,  exposed  to  public  contumely,  in  the  suburb,  along 
with  other  Egyptians  of  the  first  rank,  put  his  spirit  to  the  proof 
in  this  way.  Having  dressed  the  daughter  of  Psammenitus  in  the 
garb  of  a  slave,  he  sent  her  forth  carrying  a  pitcher  to  fetch  water, 
and  with  her  the  maiden  daughters  of  the  chief  men,  in  a  similar 
garb  to  that  of  the  princess.  The  other  parents,  when  their  chil- 
dren came  opposite  to  where  they  sat,  lifted  up  their  voices  and. 
wept  at  the  sight  of  their  afflicted  condition ;  but  Psammenitus, 
though  he  recognised  his  daughter,  only  bent  his  head  towards 
the  ground.  When  these  were  gone  by,  Cambyses  made  his  son 
pass  before  him  along  with  2000  other  Egyptians  of  the  same  age, 
gagged,  and  with  ropes  round  their  necks,  who  were  on  their  way 
to  execution,  in  reprisal  for  the  Mityleneans  who  had  been  put  to 
death  at  Memphis.  The  other  Egyptians  who  sat  near  him  wept 
and  lamented  as  before  ;  but  Psammenitus,  though  he  saw  them 
pass,  and  knew  that  his  son  was  on  his  way  to  death,  did  as  he 
had  done  when  his  daughter  went  by.  But  when  they  all  had 
passed,  there  happened  to  come  by  an  aged  man,  who  had  been 
one  of  his  table-companions,  now  stripped  of  everything,  and  beg- 
ging from  the  soldiers.  On  the  sight  of  him  Psammenitus- burst 
into  tears,  and,  calling  on  his  friend's  name,  beat  his  head  in  grief. 
Men  had  been  stationed  to  watch  him,  and  report  his  behavior  to 
Cambyses,  who,  being  astonished,  sent  a  messenger  to  him  with 
this  inquiry, — '  Psammenitus,  thy  lord  Cambyses  asks  thee  why, 
when  thou  sawest  thy  daughter  in  affliction  and  thy  son  going 
forth  to  death,  thou  didst  neither  weep  nor  utter  any  exclamation, 
but  hast  shown  respect  to  this  beggar,  who,  as  I  hear,  is  no  way 
allied  to  thee.'    Thus  Cambyses  questioned,  and  thus  Psammenitus 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


381 


replied  : — '  0  son  of  Cyrus,  the  misfortunes  of  my  own  family  were 
too  great  for  weeping,  but  the  sorrow  of  my  companion  deserved 
tears  ;  on  the  threshold  of  old  age  he  has  fallen  from  great  pros- 
perity into  beggary.'  "  The  history  beautifully  illustrates  the  dif- 
ference between  the  misery  that  closes,  and  the  sympathy  that 
unlocks  the  source  of  tears,  and  the  sequel  shows  that  it  was  not 
lost  on  Cambyses.  The  Persians  who  were  present  wept ;  Croesus, 
who  had  followed  Cambyses  from  Lydia,  wept ;  he  himself  (it  is 
the  Egyptians  who  report)  felt  some  touch  of  pity1  ;  he  commanded 
the  son  of  Psammenitus  to  be  spared,  and  his  father  to  be  brought 
from  the  suburbs  to  his  presence.  The  son  had  suffered  before  the 
messenger  arrived  ;  but  Psammenitus  was  conducted  to  Cambyses, 
and  for  the  present  lived  unmolested  in  his  household. 

From  Memphis  Cambyses  went  to  Sais,  and  commanded  the 
mummy  of  Amasis  to  be  brought  forth  from  its  repository.  It 
was  subjected  to  various  indignities,  the  hair  was  plucked  off,  the 
body  pierced  and  beaten  with  stripes.  But  the  process  of  embalm- 
ment had  made  it  so  firm,  that  all  this  produced  little  change  in 
it,  and  Cambyses  ordered  it  to  be  burnt.  This  was  an  act,  accord- 
ing to  Herodotus,  equally  abhorrent  to  the  feelings  both  of 
Persians  and  Egyptians  ;  for  the  Persians,  who  esteemed  fire  to  be 
a  god,  would  regard  its  employment  for  the  consumption  of  a  dead 
body  as  a  pollution2.  The  Egyptians  believed  or  pretended3  that 
it  was  not  really  the  corpse  of  their  late  king  which  underwent 
these  indignities,  but  that  Amasis,  foreseeing  the  violation  of  his 

1  Her.  3,  14.  '£2?  Si  Xeycrai  vir'  Aiyvxricov  ....  avru>  JZajjL.Svcrr)  iaeXOeiv  ol^rov 
Tiva. 

3  Ctesias  (Pers.  §  5*7.  Ba.hr.)  appears  to  deny  this  burning  of  the  body  of 
Amasis,  but  only  on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  accordant  with  Persian 
usage.  He  does  not  indeed  mention  Amasis  (the  extract  in  Photius  is 
obscure),  but  he  charges  Herodotus  with  falsehood,  and  there  is  no  other 
part  of  the  history  to  which  he  can  refer. 

8  At  flip  vvv  Ik  tov  A^aextof  ivroXai  alrai  ov  pot  SoKtovciv  df>%iiv  ycviaOai}  aAXwj 
<T  aira  Aiyvnrtot  aeftvovv.    (Her.  S,  16.) 


382 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


sepulchre,  of  which  he  had  been  warned  by  an  oracle,  had  buried 
a  corpse  close  to  the  entrance,  and  commanded  his  son  to  inter 
his  own  in  an  interior  recess.  Such  outrages  on  the  remains 
of  the  dead  are  justly  reprobated  as  effusions  of  impotent 
rage,  but  they  have  been  too  often  imitated  among  Christian 
nations. 

As  Egypt  was  subdued,  and  apparently  incapable  of  resistance, 
Cambyses  planned  three  expeditions  for  the  extension  and  security 
of  his  conquests.  The  people  of  Lybia  bordering  on  Egypt  sur- 
rendered without  a  battle,  submitted  to  become  tributaries,  and 
sent  presents  with  which  Cambyses  was  satisfied.  The  people  of 
Cyrene  and  its  colony,  Barca1,  did  the  same  ;  but  he  either  despised 
their  gifts  or  doubted  their  sincerity,  and  flung  the  500  minae  of 
silver  which  they  had  sent  him  in  handfuls  to  his  soldiery.  He 
allowed,  however,  Ladice,  the  widow  of  Amasis,  to  return  unmo- 
lested to  Cyrene,  her  native  city.  The  Carthaginians  were  the 
only  other  power  in  Northern  Africa  from  whom  Cambyses  had 
anything  to  fear.  They  were  at  this  time  in  the  height  of  their 
prosperity,  predominant  over  the  colonies  which  they  had  planted 
among  the  Libyan  tribes,  without  a  rival  in  naval  power  in  the 
western  part  of  the  Mediterranean2,  and  enriched  by  an  extensive 
traffic  both  maritime  and  inland.  They  could  be  reached,  how- 
ever, only  by  sea,  and  Persia  had  no  fleet  of  her  own,  depending 
on  her  Greek  subjects  and  her  Cyprian  and  Phoenician  allies3;  and 
Carthage  being  a  colony  of  Tyre,  the  Phoenicians  professed  to 
regard  it  as  an  impiety  to  attack  their  own  children.  Cambyses 
did  not  think  it  expedient  to  attempt  to  force  them,  and  the  rest 

1  Her.  4,  160.  It  had  been  founded  about  thirty  years  before.  The 
remains  of  walls  and  sepulchres  at  Merge,  about  eight  miles  from  Cyrene, 
which  were  first  discovered  by  Delia  Cella,  appear  to  mark  its  site. 
(Ritter,  Erdk.  1,  942.) 

2  They  had  defeated  the  Phocaians  in  a  great  naval  battle  b.o.  536. 

3  Her.  3,  19. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY". 


383 


of  his  fleet  not  being  able  alone  to  cope  with  the  Carthaginians, 
they  escaped  being  reduced  into  slavery  to  Persia. 

Nothing  has  contributed  more  to  procure  for  Cambyses  the 
character  of  a  frantic  madman  than  his  expedition  to  Ethiopia. 
Had  it  been  really  undertaken  against  a  people  living,  as  Hero- 
dotus supposed,  where  Africa  is  washed  by  the  southern  sea1  and 
in  revenge  for  an  insulting  message,  he  would  have  deserved  this 
character.  But  we  must  distinguish  between  the  Ethiopia  of 
Egyptian  history  and  the  Ethiopia  of  Greek  mythology.  The 
former  is  better  known  in  this  age  than  in  the  age  of  Herodotus. 
Its  seat  was  in  Upper  Nubia,  Dongola  and  Meroe,  and  though  we 
have  heard  of  no  invasion  of  the  Egyptian  territories  by  the 
Ethiopians  since  the  accession  of  the  Saitic  dynasty,  we  have  no 
ground  to  believe  that  their  power  was  so  decayed  as  to  be  no 
longer  formidable  to  Egypt,  especially  to  Egypt  when  become  a 
province  of  Persia,  and  filled  with  a  discontented  population. 
Sound  reasons  of  policy  might  therefore  induce  Cambyses  to 
undertake  an  expedition  against  it.  The  narrative  of  Herodotus 
is  altogether  romantic.  Even  in  the  time  of  Homer  the  Greek 
fancy  was  excited  by  tales  respecting  the  Ethiopians.  They  were 
a  blameless  race,  extending  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun, 
devoted  to  the  worship  of  the  gods,  and  honored  by  their  special 
presence.  If  Homer  had  any  distinct  conception  of  their  geo- 
graphical position,  he  probably  placed  them  immediately  above 
Egypt,  whence  he  believed  them  to  spread  in  indefinite  extension 
to  the  east  and  west,  wherever  there  was  a  rumor  of  sun-blackened 
men.  But  in  the  age  of  Herodotus  the  countries  which  bordered 
upon  Egypt,  though  rarely  visited  by  Greeks,  were  too  well  known 
to  be  the  scene  of  prodigies ;  the  course  of  the  Nile  to  Mero«  was 
explored  and  measured  ;  it  was  believed  that  the  limits  of  geogra- 
phical knowledge  had  been  carried  forward  a  thousand  miles 


1  Her.  3,  11 4. 


384 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


above  Meroe  by  the  settlement  of  the  Automoli.  Yet  fiction 
would  not  for  this  loose  its  hold  of  the  Ethiopians ;  to  Herodotus 
as  to  Homer  they  were  still  "  the  remotest  of  men,  dwelling  on 
the  shores  of  the  ocean1 ;"  but  the  ocean  was  now  the  southern 
boundary  of  Africa,  a  real  sea,  though  misconceived  by  Herodotus 
in  regard  to  its  position  and  direction.  The  barbarism  of  the 
tribes  who  dwelt  to  the  south  of  Meroe,  and  their  consequent  free- 
dom from  the  vices  of  civilization,  afforded  an  opportunity  for 
making  them  the  heirs  of  that  peculiar  favor  of  the  gods  which 
their  mythic  predecessors  had  enjoyed ;  they  surpass  all  men  in 
beauty,  strength  and  longevity,  and  instead  of  living  by  laborious 
culture  of  the  soil,  a  table  covered  with  flesh  was  said  to  be 
renewed  every  night  by  the  bounty  of  their  chief  god,  the  Sun. 

The  first  step  which  Cambyses  took  in  the  execution  of  his  enter- 
prise was  to  send  an  exploring  party  into  Ethiopia.  Where  the 
Ethiopia  lay  which  he  was  intending  to  invade,  is  evident  from  his 
choice  of  spies.  Psammitichus,  as  we  have  mentioned,  had  trained 
a  body  of  the  Ichthyophagi,  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  coast  of 
the  Red  Sea,  southward  of  Berenice,  to  assist  him  in  seeking  the 
fountains  of  the  Nile,  and  a  chief  requisite  for  this  purpose  would 
be  a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  Ethiopians,  who  occupied 
the  banks  of  the  Nile  for  more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  its  course. 
They  appear  to  have  been  permanently  established  at  Elephantine, 
the  frontier  town  of  the  two  nations  and  languages,  where  their 
services  as  interpreters  would  be  equally  valuable  to  the  Egyptians 
and  Ethiopians2.  The  subsequent  proceedings  are  thus  related  by 
Herodotus : — 

"When  the  Ichthyophagi  appeared  before  the  king  of  the  Ethi- 
opians, bringing  the  gifts  which  Cambyses  had  entrusted  to  them 
(a  purple  garment,  a  twisted  golden  collar  and  bracelets,  an  ala- 

1  H  if/,  205  ;  a\  423.    Od.  a,  22.  . 

3  Her.  3.  19.  Strabo,  17,  p.  818.  The  expression  of  Herodotus,  2,  29,  is 
ambiguous,  but  it  is  probable  he  meant  Elephantine  by  f,  vnvos. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


385 


baster  vase  of  perfume  and  a  jar  of  palm  wine),  they  thus  spoke : 
'  Cambyses,  king  of  the  Persians,  wishing  to  be  on  a  footing  of 
friendship  and  hospitality  with  thee,  has  sent  us  to  confer  with 
thee,  and  offers  thee  as  gifts  these  things,  in  using  which  he  him- 
self most  delights.'  The  king  of  Ethiopia,  knowing  that  they  had 
come  as  spies,  replied  to  them  thus :  '  The  king  of  Persia  has  not 
sent  you  with  these  gifts  because  he  values  my  friendship,  but  ye 
are  come  to  spy  out  my  kingdom  :  nor  is  he  a  just  man  ;  for  if  he 
had  been,  he  would  not  have  desired  any  other  country  than  his 
own,  nor  have  reduced  to  slavery  men  who  had  done  him  no  injury 
whatever.  Give  him  then  this  bow,  and  say  these  words  to  him, — 
The  king  of  the  Ethiopians  advises  the  king  of  the  Persians  not  to 
invade  the  long-lived  Ethiopians  till  the  Persians  can  draw  with 
ease  such  large  bows  as  this,  and  then  to  come  with  superior  forces. 
Till  that  time,  let  him  thank  the  gods  that  they  do  not  put  it  into 
the  hearts  of  the  Ethiopians  to  add  to  their  own  territory.'  Then 
unstringing  his  bow  he  gave  it  to  the  messengers  of  Cambyses. 
Next,  taking  up  the  purple  garment,  he  asked  what  it  was,  and 
how  it  was  made.  The  Ichthyophagi  having  told  him  all  about 
purple  and  dyeing,  he  said  they  were  deceitful  men  and  their  gar- 
ments deceitful.  Then  he  inquired  about  the  golden  collar  and 
bracelets,  and  when  the  Ichthyophagi  explained  the  ornaments,  he 
laughed  and  said  that  they  had  stronger  fetters  than  these,  thinking 
they  were  meant  for  fetters.  In  the  third  place  he  inquired  about 
the  perfume ;  and  when  they  told  him  how  it  was  made  and  how 
it  was  used,  he  said  the  same  thing  as  about  the  purple  garment. 
But  when  he  came  to  the  wine  and  heard  how  it  was  made,  being 
excessively  delighted  with  the  draught  he  inquired  on  what  the 
king  lived,  and  what  was  the  longest  life  that  a  Persian  attained. 
They  told  him,  on  bread,  explaining  the  nature  of  wheat,  and  that 
80  years  was  the  longest  term  of  life  that  awaited  man.  '  No 
wonder,  then,'  said  the  Ethiopian,  'if  those  who  live  on  dirt  have 
such  short  lives ;  they  would  not  even  have  lived  so  long  if  they 

VOL.  II.  17 


386 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


had  not  kept  themselves  up  with  this  liquor ;  in  this  one  thing  the 
Persians  have  the  advantage  of  us.'  The  Ichthyophagi  in  their 
turn  questioned  the  king  about  the  life  and  diet  of  his  people,  and 
he  said  that  the  majority  of  them  lived  to  120  years  and  some  even 
more ;  that  their  food  was  boiled  flesh,  and  their  drink  was  milk. 
When  they  expressed  their  wonder  that  the  Ethiopians  lived  so 
long,  he  led  them  to  a  fountain,  which  made  those  who  bathed  in  it 
sleek  as  if  it  had  been  oil,  and  had  a  fragrance  like  violets,  and  so 
light  that  neither  wood  nor  bodies  lighter  than  wood  would  swim 
in  it ;  they  all  sunk  to  the  bottom.  Next  they  were  taken  to  the 
prison,  where  all  the  prisoners  had  fetters  of  gold,  and  to  the  table 
of  the  Sun." 

The  view  which  a  barbarian  takes  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life 
always  affords  a  lively  contrast,  and  the  opportunity  of  covert  satire 
on  artificial  manners.  Such  is  evidently  the  purpose  with  which 
this  scene  has  been  described.  The  king  of  the  Ethiopians  treats 
the  dyed  garment  as  a  fraud,  the  perfumed  ointment  as  a  corrup- 
tion of  the  simplicity  of  nature1,  and  takes  the  royal  ornaments  for 
the  collar  and  fetters  of  a  culprit.  In  one  thing  only  does  he  admit 
the  superiority  of  the  Persian — the  art  of  producing  wine,  every- 
where the  most  irresistible  attraction  to  the  savage.  There  is  a 
certain  adaptation  in  the  story  to  what  was  known  or  believed 
respecting  the  interior  of  Africa,  but  it  can  only  be  received  as  a 
happy  fiction.  The  Ichthyophagi  vanish  and  re-appear,  like  the- 
atrical messengers,  without  any  note  of  time,  Cambyses  remaining 
as  it  should  seem  at  Memphis,  while  they  go  to  "  the  ends  of  the 
earth"  and  return2.  The  sole  fact  on  which  we  can  rely  is,  that 
1  The  rustic  served  the  same  purpose  of  contrast  to  Virgil,  as  the  king  of 
Ethiopia  to  Herodotus,  or  the  author  of  the  tale  : — 

Si  non  ....  varios  inhiant  pulchra  testudine  postes, 

Alba  neque  Assyrio  fucatur  lana  veneno, 

Nec  casia  liquidi  conrumpitur  usus  olivi  ; 

At  secura  quies,  cset. — Georg.  2,  461. 
"  Iu  its  disregard  of  time  and  distance  this  story  resembles  that  of  the 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


387 


Cambyses  sent  an  exploring  party  before  lie  set  out  on  his  march 
against  Ethiopia,  a  wise  precaution,  not  indicative  of  that  frenzy 
which  the  Egyptians  imputed  to  all  his  actions. 

When  they  returned,  provoked,  as  Herodotus  says,  at  the  mes- 
sage of  the  king,  he  set  out  for  Ethiopia.  The  Greeks  were  left 
behind  at  Memphis,  and  we  are  consequently  deprived  of  the  bene- 
fit of  their  evidence,  as  to  the  real  events  of  the  expedition.  Tak- 
ing with  him  the  whole  of  his  land  forces,  he  proceeded  from 
Memphis  to  Thebes.  Hence  it  is  said  he  detached  50,000  men1 
with  orders  to  reduce  the  Ammonians,  and  burn  the  temple  of 
Jupiter ;  with  the  remainder  he  pursued  his  march  towards 
Ethiopia.  He  had  made  no  provision  of  magazines  of  corn,  and 
before  he  had  accomplished  a  fifth  part  of  the  way,  the  victuals 
which  the  soldiers  carried  with  them  failed.  They  then  devoured 
the  beasts  of  burthen,  but  even  this  did  not  induce  Cambyses  to 
renounce  his  project ;  he  still  pressed  on.  The  soldiers  supported 
themselves  on  herbs,  as  long  as  the  ground  furnished  them  with 
any  supply;  but  when  they  came  into  the  sand,  such  was  the 
extremity  of  their  suffering,  that  they  cast  lots  among  ten,  and  he 
on  whom  the  lot  fell  was  devoured  by  the  rest.  Then  Cambyses 
repented,  and  led  back  his  army  to  Thebes,  abandoning  his  enter- 
prise against  Ethiopia. 

It  would  not  be  easy,  from  the  brief  description  of  Herodotus,  to 
decide  the  direction  of  Cambyses'  march  beyond  the  frontiers  of 
Egypt.  Nature,  however,  has  marked  out  the  lines  of  communi- 
cation between  it  and  the  country  which  he  was  endeavoring  to 
reach,  and  they  remain  the  same  in  all  ages.  He  might  have  fol- 
lowed the  Nile  upwards  from  Syene,  through  Nubia  and  Dongola, 

expedition  of  Darius  to  the  Wolga,  Her.  4.  (See  Mr.  Grote's  remarks,  Hist, 
of  Greece,  4,  356.) 

1  This  number  far  exceeds  what  would  be  necessary  for  the  purpose  of 
occupying  the  oases,  nor  is  it  credible  that  Cambyses  should  have  with- 
drawn all  his  native  troops  at  once  from  Egypt. 


388 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


to  Gebel-el-Birkel.  and  so  further  to  Meroe ;  but  this  would  have 
occupied  many  months,  and  would  not  have  involved  him  in  that 
Desert  of  sand  which  ultimately  compelled  him  to  return.  He 
might  have  struck  at  once  from  Syene  into  the  Desert,  to  proceed 
by  the  track  which  the  caravans  from  Sennaar  now  often  take,  and 
which  Bruce  and  Burckhardt  followed  ;  but  this  would  be  incon- 
sistent with  the  account  of  Herodotus,  who  represents  the  soldiers 
as  supporting  themselves  on  the  scanty  vegetation  which  they 
found,  before  they  entered  the  sand.  The  third  track  is  that  which 
is  most  commonly  pursued  by  caravans  and  travellers  at  the  pre- 
sent day.  From  Syene  they  ascend  the  river  to  Korosko  (Derr), 
about  half  way  between  the  First  and  Second  Cataract.  Here  an 
AJcaba  or  mountain  pass  opens  into  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  leading 
through  the  Desert,  by  a  route  of  about  250  miles,  to  Abou  Ham- 
med, near  the  island  Mogreb,  where  it  rejoins  the  river  just  at  the 
beginning  of  its  great  bend  to  the  south-west1.  The  first  part  of 
the  march,  for  about  sixty  miles,  lies  through  a  valley  bordered  by 
sandstone  hills  not  wholly  destitute  of  vegetation,  since  Hoskins 
was  informed  that  the  Bishareen  Arabs  come  hither  in  the  season 
to  pasture  their  flocks2.  Beyond  this  valley  lies  a  plain  of  desert 
sand,  called  At?noor-bela-ma,  the  sea  without  water,  extending  to 
the  south  for  fifty  miles,  on  the  west  to  the  Second  Cataract,  and 
on  the  east  nearly  to  the  Red  Sea3.  The  desert  is  seen  here  in  all 
its  horrors,  which  have  been  in  some  measure  relieved  by  a  variety 
in  the  scenery  while  passing  through  the  rocky  valley.  The  want 
of  water  is  aggravated  by  the  illusion  which  presents  everywhere 
lakes  and  pools  to  the  traveller  suffering  the  extremity  of  thirst. 
The  wind,  sweeping  over  the  unsheltered  plain,  raises  pillars 
of  sand,  which  choke  the  breathing-passages,  while  the  heat  of 
the  blast  relaxes  his  strength  and  augments  his  distress.  Even 
1  See  vol.  i.  pp.  21,  22. 

3  Russegger,  Reisen,  2nd  B.  B.  1,  p.  423.    Hoskins,  p.  23. 
*  See  Russegger's  Karte  von  Nubien. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


389 


the  obstinacy  of  Cambyses  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the  sufferings 
of  his  followers  and  their  dreadful  effects ;  could  he  have  struggled 
through  the  sand,  there  was  still  considerably  more  than  100  miles 
to  be  accomplished  through  a  region  of  barren  rock,  before  he 
could  have  reached  the  Nile  at  Abou  Hammed.  This  desert,  how- 
ever, is  not  impassable  for  an  army1,  if  proper  precautions  be  taken. 
In  the  reign  of  Augustus2  the  Ethiopians  under  Candace  had 
advanced  as  far  as  Elephantine,  the  Roman  garrison  being  weak- 
ened by  the  withdrawal  of  part  of  the  troops  under  ^Elius  Gallus 
to  attack  the  Arabians.  Petronius,  with  about  10,000  infantry 
and  800  horse,  first  of  all  drove  them  from  Elephantine  into  the 
fortress  of  Pselcis  (Dakke),  between  Svene  and  Korosko,  and  then, 
as  the  remains  of  the  army  had  fled  into  the  Desert,  "  passing 
through  the  tract  of  sand3  where  the  army  of  Cambyses  was  over- 
whelmed, a  violent  wind  falling  upon  them4,  he  came  to  Premnis, 
a  strong  place  which  he  took,  and  then  advanced  against  Xapata." 
The  Premnis  here  spoken  of  must  be  the  Prlmis  Magna  of  Pto- 
lemy5. He  places  it  beyond  Napata,  and  just  above  Meroe,  in  his 
enumeration  of  towns  on  the  eastern  or  right  bank  of  the  Nile.  It 
must  therefore  have  been  somewhere  near  the  termination  of  the 
pass  of  Korosko  at  Abou  Hammed.  Petronius  was  deterred  from 
proceeding  further  south  by  the  heat  and  the  sand6,  and  could  not 

1  That  it  was  commonly  traversed  in  ancient  times  is  evident  from  what 
Mr.  Hoskins  says,  that  hieroglyphics  are  found  near  some  of  the  wells 
(p.  24). 

a  Strabo,  17,  p.  822. 

*  Qlves  was  the  appropriate  name  for  these  sandy  regions.  Clearchus 
(Allien.  8,  345)  wrote  a  treatise,  flepi  Qivw,  De  Locis  Arenosis. 

4  Strabo  has  confounded  the  expedition  against  Ethiopia  with  that  against 
Ammonium,  but  it  is  evident  he  believed  the  army  of  Cambyses  to  have 
been  in  the  sandy  desert 

6  PtoL  Geogr.  4,  7,  p.  302,  ed.  Wilberg.  ]»?  Meya\n  W  (62°)  I?  (17°) 

'  E  V  T  £V  ft  £  V    61    VI)<TOTTOlElTai    t\    M  £  p  O  JJ    %U}  p  a. 

6  Dion.  Cass.  lib.  54,  p.  734,  Reiz.    He  calls  Napata,  Tavanri. 


390 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


remain  where  he  was  with  his  whole  army.  He  refortified  Prem- 
nis,  garrisoned  it  with  400  men,  victualled  it  for  two  years,  and 
returned  to  Alexandria.  In  his  absence  Candace  attacked  Prem- 
nis,  but  Petronius  was  in  time  to  relieve  the  garrison,  and  compelled 
the  queen  to  send  an  embassy  to  Caesar.  In  this  age  the  Desert 
had  been  long  known  and  often  travelled  by  those  who  passed 
between  Egypt  and  Meroe,  but  to  Cambyses  and  his  army  its 
difficulties  were  unknown,  and  it  is  not  wonderful  that  he  should 
have  been  baffled  in  his  attempt  to  cross  it.  The  name  of  Maga- 
zine of  Cambyses1,  which  Ptolemy  places  in  lat.  18°,  shows  that 
while  the  main  army  attempted  the  passage  of  the  Desert,  another 
part  advanced  by  the  valley  of  the  Nile  into  Upper  Nubia;  and 
this  country  remained  tributary  to  Persia3. 

His  expedition  against  Ammonium  has  been  attributed  to  the 
same  uncalculating  frenzy  as  that  against  Ethiopia,  inflamed  by 
the  fanatical  wish  to  destroy  the  celebrated  temple  of  Amnion. 
At  this  time,  however,  Cambyses  had  committed  no  outrages 
against  the  Egyptian  religion,  and  had  his  object  been  only  to 
occupy  Ammonium  and  destroy  its  temple,  it  might  have  been 
reached  with  much  greater  ease  from  Lower  Egypt.  It  was  evi- 
dently his  design  to  take  possession  of  all  these  Oases,  which 

1  Kapfivirov  Ta/i/£?a,  Ptolemy,  4,  7.  It  was  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river. 
TaineTov  was  not  merely  a  treasury,  but  a  storehouse  or  magazine.  (Pollux, 
9,  5.)  According  to  the  account  of  Pliny,  Petronius  returned  to  Napata,  on 
his  second  expedition,  by  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  through  Nubia  and  Don- 
gola,  for  he  enumerates  the  places  which  he  took,  in  this  order:  Pselcis, 
Primis  (Ibrim),  Aboccis  (Aboosimbel),  Pthuris  (Farras),  Cambusis,  Atteva, 
Stadisis,  "ubi  Nilus  prcecipitans  se,  fragore  auditum  accolis  aufert."*  (6, 
29.)  This  must  be  the  Third  Cataract,  to  which  Pliny  has  transferred  the 
popular  account  of  the  First. 

a  Her.  3,  97  ;  7,  69.  Josephus,  Ant.  2,  10,  represents  Cambyses  as  con- 
quering the  capital  of  Ethiopia  and  changing  its  name  from  Saba  to  Meroe. 
Diodorus  (1,  34)  speaks  of  Cambyses  as  occupying  Ethiopia,  meaning  proba- 
bly only  Nubia. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


391 


might  serve  as  retreats  and  mustering-places  for  the  discontented 
Egyptians,  and  nests  for  robbers  who  might  interrupt'  commerce. 
This  was  a  wise  policy  for  the  new  sovereign  of  Egypt,  and  the 
Great  Oasis  was  accordingly  occupied  under  Darius  his  successor. 
The  fate  of  the  50,000  men  said  to  have  marched  against  it  was 
never  distinctly  known.  They  reached  in  safety  the  Great  Oasis, 
which  is  nearly  in  the  same  latitude  as  Thebes,  and  about  120 
miles  distant  from  it ;  it  was  inhabited  by  Samians  of  the  iEschri- 
onian  phyle,  who  had  probably  found  their  way  to  it  from  the 
north,  as  Ammonium  appears  to  have  had  also  a  Greek  popula- 
tion1. Their  route  after  leaving  it  would  lie  through  the  Oasis  of 
El  Farafreh  in  lat  27°,  nearly  opposite  Siout  in  Egypt,  and  thence 
through  the  Oasis  of  El  Bacharieh,  or  the  Little  Oasis,  in  lat.  28° 
20'.  But  it  was  only  known  that  they  never  reached  Ammonium, 
and  never  returned.  The  Ammonians  said  that  they  had  arrived 
about  half  way2  between  the  Great  Oasis  and  their  own,  and  while 
sitting  down  to  take  their  meal  were  overwhelmed  by  a  sudden 
and  violent  wind  which  buried  them  under  heaps  of  sand.  No 
well-attested  instance  is  known  of  a  traveller  being  deprived  of 
life  by  the  fall  of  the  moving  pillars  of  sand  in  the  Desert,  much 
less  of  whole  armies  and  caravans  being  buried  by  them3.  Nor  is 
there  any  necessity  to  have  recourse  to  this  supposition  to  explain 
the  loss  of  Cambyses'  army.  They  may  have  been  misled  by 
their  guides ;  they  may  have  found  the  wells  dry  or  choked  with 
sand,  at  which  they  expected  to  renew  their  supply  of  water ;  the 
wind  may  have  obliterated  the  track  by  which  they  had  advanced, 
and  baffled  their  attempt  to  return.  In  all  these  cases  they  must 
perish  miserably,  and  the  traveller  who  saw  their  shrivelled  bodies 
or  their  skeletons,  covered  with  the  drifted  sand,  would  naturally 

1  Her.  2,  32.    Vol.  L  p.  60. 

*  Mcra^B  kov  fi&Xicra  avrwv  rz  koi  rrjs  'CWioj.     (Her.  3,  26.) 

*  Compare  the  accounts  of  Bruce  (6,  458)  with  those  of  Burckhardt. 
(Nubia,  1,  20V.) 


392 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


suppose  that  its  fall  had  buried  them  alive1.  The  expedition  of 
Cyrus  against  the  Massagetae  was  rash  ;  so  was  that  of  Darius 
against  the  Scythians  ;  but  the  Desert  expeditions  of  Cainbyses 
were  far  more  rash,  because,  like  Napoleon  in  Russia,  he  committed 
himself  to  a  strife  with  the  powers  of  nature. 

We  are  not  informed  when  it  was  that  Psammenitus  endeavored 
to  raise  an  insurrection  in  Egypt,  but  it  was  probably  during  the 
absence  of  Cambyses  on  his  Ethiopian  expedition,  when  the  country 
seems  to  have  been  left  with  few  troops,  except  the  Grecian,  Phoe- 
nician and  Cyprian  mercenaries.  It  is  therefore  not  wonderful 
that  he  treated  Egypt  on  his  return  with  much  greater  severity 
than  before.  Psammenitus,  who  might  have  retained  the  vice- 
royalty  of  Egypt,  as  Herodotus  assures  us,  had  he  known  how  to 
remain  quiet2,  was  compelled  to  put  himself  to  death  by  drinking 
bull's  blood.  Thebes  first  felt  his  vengeance,  and  here  he  began 
those  outrages  upon  the  religion  of  Egypt  which  made  his  name 
odious  to  the  priesthood.  Probably  they  had  sympathised  with 
the  attempt  of  Psammenitus,  and  had  ill  concealed  their  joy  at 
the  disasters  of  Cambyses.  The  temples  were  not  only  stripped 
of  their  wealth  in  gold,  silver3  and  ivory,  which  was  carried  to 
Persia,  but  burnt ;  and  no  doubt  ruins  which  were  the  work  of 
time  and  earthquakes,  and  the  neglect  which  is  the  lot  of  a  deserted 
capital,  were  attributed  to  this  arch-enemy  of  their  country  and 
religion.  The  rage  of  Cambyses  against  the  priesthood  was 
inflamed  by  hatred  and  contempt  for  their  rites  and  dogmas. 
The  Persians  were  not  monotheists,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
Hebrews  were  so  j  they  worshipped  the  elements,  earth,  air,  water, 

1  ?Af£/;oj  v6tos  cttHv  trvtvar,  iv  hceiva  tu>  rrjs  ipdfj[iov  iirKpopet  itri  piya,  ko.1 

aipnvi^erai  ret  o-^eia,  ovAi  lariv  tidevai  "va  %pri  iroptveodai,  KaBdirtp  iv  ncXayei,  tJJ 
ipappi?'  oti  cri/ieia  ovk  zgti  Kara  ri)V  bSdv,  ovrc  nov  opos,  ovre  Sz'vSpov,  ovrs  yfjXoQat 
fitfiaioi  avsorriKOTts,  otf  riaiv  ol  bSirai  reKfiaipoivTO  av  t}]v  iropziav,  naQdvto  ot  vavrai 

toTs  aarpots.    (Arrian,  3,  3,  of  the  march  of  Alexander  to  Ammonium.) 
3  Her.  3,  15.  8  Diod.  1,  46. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


393 


and  before  all  fire ;  the  whole  circle  of  heaven  was  their  supreme 
god ;  but  they  viewed  with  abhorrence  the  confinement  of  the  deity 
within  the  walls  of  a  temple  and  his  representation  under  a  human 
form.  They  offered  sacrifices,  but  without  altar,  or  fire,  or  libation, 
or  sprinkling  of  sacred  meal,  or  music1.  These  differences  were 
quite  sufficient  to  awaken  the  spirit  of  intolerance,  which  is  natu- 
rally the  strongest,  when  the  most  opposite  opinions  come  into 
collision  ;  when  the  monothelst  is  opposed  to  the  polytheist,  the 
iconoclast  to  the  idolater.2  In  such  conflicts  a  fanatical  persecution 
is  the  first  result;  interest  subsequently  dictates  toleration,  if  the 
parties  have  need  of  each  other's  services. 

A  circumstance  occurred  which  called  forth  in  all  its  bitterness 
the  contempt  of  the  Persian  for  Egyptian  superstition.  When 
Cambyses  arrived  at  Memphis  he  found  the  people  feasting  and  in 
holiday  attire,  and  suspecting  that  it  was  a  rejoicing  for  his  own 
defeat,  he  summoned  the  magistrates  of  Memphis  to  his  presence 
and  asked  them  why  these  festivities  were  going  on  now,  though 
be  had  seen  nothing  of  the  kind  when  he  was  in  Memphis  before. 
They  replied  that  a  god  had  appeared  among  them  as  he  was  wont 
to  do,  but  at  considerable  intervals  of  time.  He  regarded  their 
answer  as  a  falsehood,  and  commanded  them  to  be  put  to  death. 
Next  he  sent  for  the  priests,  and  as  they  gave  him  the  same  account, 
he  said  he  would  know  whether  a  god  had  really  made  his  appear- 
ance among  the  Egyptians  in  the  shape  of  a  domesticated  beast3,  and 
ordered  Apis  to  be  brought  in.  When  he  saw  a  young  steer  fan- 
tastically marked,  he  drew  his  short  sword  and  aimed  a  blow  at 
the  belly  of  Apis,  but  struck  him  on  the  thigh.  "  0  stupid  mor- 
tals," he  exclaimed,  "  are  these  your  gods  ?  creatures  of  flesh  and 

1  Herod.  1,  131. 

9  Cic.  de  Legg.  2,  10.  Magi'  auctoribus  Xerxes  inflammasse  terapla 
Graecise  dicitur  quod  parietibus  includerent  deos  quibus  omnia  deberent  esse 
patentia  ac  libera,  quoruraque  hie  mundus  omnis  templum  esset  et  domus, 

*  Ei  9e6s  tis  x.£lP  v)t\>  d7riyt<tvo;  ti.-j  Aiyvnrioiai.     (Her.  2,  28.) 

17* 


394 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


blood,  and  sensible  to  the  touch  of  steel !  But  ye  shall  not  with 
impunity  make  me  your  laughing-stock."  He  then  commanded 
the  priests  to  be  scourged,  and  every  Egyptian  to  be  put  to  death  who 
should  be  found  engaged  in  festivity.  Apis  died  of  his  wound  and 
was  buried  by  the  priests  without  the  knowledge  of  Cambyses. 
He  had  not  before  been  of  sound  mind,  and,  as  the  Egyptians 
said,  became  quite  mad  from  the  moment  of  this  impious  deed. 
Heliopohs,  the  seat  of  the  worship  of  the  bull  Mnevis,  suffered 
equally  with  Memphis  from  his  fanaticism  :  both  here  and  at  Thebes 
the  obelisks  bore  marks  of  the  fires  in  which  the  temples  had  been 
consumed1.  Various  other  acts  are  recorded  of  him,  indicative 
not  so  much  of  intolerance  or  cruelty,  as  of  that  heedlessness  or 
insolence  which  in  the  gratification  of  curiosity  overlooks  the  wound 
inflicted  on  the  feelings  of  others.  He  went  into  the  temple  of 
Ptah  and  made  great  sport  of  the  deformed  and  pygmy  image  of 
the  god  ;  he  also  entered  the  temple  of  the  Cabiri,  the  reputed 
sons  of  Ptah,  and  burnt  their  wooden  images.  He  opened  many 
of  the  ancient  tombs  and  inspected  the  mummies.  "  I  am  quite 
convinced,"  says  Herodotus  after  relating  these  things,  "  that  Cam- 
byses was  very  mad  ;  he  would  not  else  have  treated  temples  and 
established  usages  with  ridicule.  For  if  one  were  to  propose  to  all 
men  to  select  from  all  the  usages  in  the  world  those  which  they 
deemed  the  best,  they  would  each,  after  deliberate  comparison,  fix 
on  their  own.  None  therefore  but  a  madman  would  treat  these 
things  with  ridicule.  And  that  this  is  the  judgment  of  all  men 
respecting  their  own  usages  I  infer  from  many  other  proofs,  and 
from  this  instance  more  especially.  Darius  once  called  the  Greeks 
who  were  near  him  to  his  presence,  and  asked  them  for  what  con- 
sideration they  would  devour  their  dead  parents  ;  and  they 
answered  for  none  that  could  be  named.  After  this  Darius  called 
the  Callatian  Indians,  who  are  accustomed  to  eat  their  dead  parents, 


1  Strabo,  17,  p.  805. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


305 


and  asked  them  by  an  interpreter  in  the  presence  of  the  Greeks, 
for  what  consideration  they  would  agree  to  burn  their  parents' 
corpses  ;  and  they  with  a  loud  outcry  begged  him  not  to  shock 
their  ears  with  such  horrid  words.  Well  has  Pindar  written,  that 
Usage  is  lord  of  all."  Had  Herodotus,  who  here  expresses  the 
feeling  of  his  own  humane  and  reverent  mind,  been  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  persecution,  he  would  hardly  have  concluded 
Cambyses  to  be  mad,  because  he  treated  with  contempt  the  reli- 
gious convictions  and  practices  of  others. 

The  acts  of  cruelty  which  Cambyses  subsequently  committed, 
his  putting  to  death  his  brother  Smerdis  and  his  wife1,  who  was 
also  his  sister, — his  murder  of  the  son  of  Prexaspes  and  execution 
of  twelve  Persians — belong  rather  to  Persian  than  Egyptian  his- 
tory. We  might  conclude  from  them  that  he  was  really  frantic, 
were  there  not  so  many  parallel  instances  of  cruelty  in  the  acts  of 
oriental  sovereigns,  and  even  of  the  successors  of  Cambyses  him- 
self. When  Oiobazus  supplicated  that  one  of  his  three  sons  might 
remain  with  him,  the  wise  and  humane  Darius  promised  that,  as 
he  was  his  friend  and  his  request  was  moderate,  they  should  all  be 
left,  and  ordered  them  immediately  to  be  put  to  death2.  In 
answer  to  a  similar  request,  Xerxes  commanded  the  eldest  son  of 
his  host,  Pythius  the  Lydian,  to  be  cut  in  half3,  that  the  army 
might  march  between  the  portions  of  his  body.  If  the  lust  and 
cruelty  of  Henry  VIII.  appear  less  brutal  than  those  of  Cambyses, 
it  is  only  because  Christian  civilization  and  the  forms  of  a  consti- 
tutional government  imposed  a  certain  restraint  on  the  Engi'sh 
sovereign.  Cambyses,  no  doubt,  was  subject  to  epilepsy,  which 
may  have  weakened  his  power  of  self-control ;  but  to  the  last  he 
showed  no  want  of  vigor  or  sagacity.     Diodorus  has  rightly 

1  "We  may  observe  that  the  cruelty  of  his  behavior  towards  his  wife  is 
aggravated  into  brutality  in  the  Egyptian  version  of  the  story.  (Her. 
3,  32.) 

8  Her.  4,  84.  8  Her.  7,  37. 


396 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


described  liim  by  saying,  "  that  lie  bad  by  nature  a  toucb  of  insanity 
and  mental  aberration,  but  tbat  the  greatness  of  his  power  had 
much  more  to  do  in  making  him  cruel  and  insolent1." 

Cambyses  had  spent  between  three  and  four  years  in  Egypt, 
when  he  was  recalled  to  Persia  by  the  usurpation  of  the  two  Magi, 
one  of  whom  pretended  to  be  Smerdis,  the  brother  of  Cambyses, 
whom  he  had  murdered  by  the  hands  of  Prexaspes.  He  had 
already  reached  a  town  in  Syria,  which  Herodotus  calls  Ecbatana, 
when  he  met  the  messenger  who  was  on  his  way  to  Egypt,  to  call 
on  the  army  to  renounce  their  allegiance  to  him.  Leaping  hastily 
on  his  horse  to  proceed  to  Persia,  he  shook  off  the  knob  which 
closed  the  lower  end  of  the  sheath  in  which  he  wore  his  short 
sword,  and  the  point  protruding  wounded  him  dangerously  in  the 
thigh,  precisely  where  he  had  wounded  the  god  Apis.  The  bone 
became  carious,  and  he  died  in  Ecbatana,  according  to  an  Egyptian 
oracle,  which  he  had  interpreted  to  mean  that  he  should  end  his 
days,  an  old  man,  in  the  ancient  capital  of  Media,  where  all  his 
treasures  were  laid  up.  Such  is  the  account  of  Herodotus,  which 
was  no  doubt  derived  from  the  Egyptian  priests,  and  is  suspicious 
from  its  exhibiting  a  striking  proof  of  the  vengeance  of  their  god 
and  the  infallibility  of  their  oracle.  Ctesias  says,  he  died  at  Baby- 
lon of  a  wound  in  the  thigh  which  he  gave  himself  while  planing 
wood  for  his  amusement2.    He  had  reigned  over  Egypt  six  years ; 

1  YZafiPvaris  iiv  niv  <pvoet  paviKOi  Kal  irapaKCKivriKws  roig  \oyio-pois'  iro\v  Si  /iiiXXov 
avrov  (i/idf  Kal  vnepi'iipavov  enotci  to  rrjs  0aai\eias  ptycQog.  (Diod.  Excerpt,  p.  248.) 
Herodotus  seems  to  doubt  whether  the  misdeeds  of  Cambyses  were  the 
consequence  of  his  outrage  on  Apis  or  of  natural  influences — urc  6ia  rdv 

*A.tiv,  cite  Kal  aXXtdf,  oia  ToXXa  iu>6ec  dvQpuyrrovs  Kaxti  Kara\ap.l3dvtiv  (3,  33). 

3  I  have  not  hitherto  noticed  Ctesias'  account  of  the  conquest  of  Egypt 
by  Cambyses.  According  to  him,  Amyrtseus  was  king  of  Egypt  at  the 
time  of  the  invasion.  Combaphes,  his  chief  eunuch,  was  induced  by  the 
promise  of  the  satrapy  to  betray  his  master,  and  Amyrtauis  being  taken 
prisoner,  was  transferred  to  Susa,  with  six  thousand  Egyptians  selected  by 
himself.    This  is  inconsistent  with  the  Egyptian  monuments,  with  Manetho 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


397 


no  memorial  of  him  has  been  found  on  a  temple  or  palace  of  Egypt, 
where  he  only  destroyed ;  but  his  shield,  bearing  date  in  his  sixth 
year,  is  seen  with  those  of  Darius  and  Xerxes,  on  the  road  to 
Cosseir  near  the  Red  Sea1,  mixed  with  some  of  the  most  ancient  of 
the  Pharaohs.  It  was  natural  that  his  memory  should  be  the  object 
of  unmitigated  hatred  and  abhorrence  to  the  Egyptians  ;  even  the 
Persians,  who  had  called  Cyrus  their  father,  gave  Cambyses  the 
title  of  Lord,  in  token  of  his  severe  and  haughty  temper2,  yet  with 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  vigour  with  which  he  governed  his 
dominions. 

The  conquests  of  Cyrus  and  Cambyses  had  been  rapidly  made, 
and  not  consolidated  by  any  systematic  administration.  In  the  arts 
of  government  the  Medes  and  Persians  were  as  much  inferior  to  the 
Egyptians,  as  they  were  superior  to  them  in  military  force,  and  they 
had  much  to  learn  in  civilization  from  their  new  subjects.  The 
first  care  of  Darius  (520  b.  c.)  was  to  unite  the  heterogeneous 
members  of  the  empire  by  a  uniform  system  of  government,  which 
should  secure  the  prompt  and  effectual  execution  of  the  commands 
of  the  central  power,  and  at  the  same  time  to  exchange  the  method 
of  irregular  and  indefinite  contribution  (called  gifts)  which  had 
prevailed  under  Cyrus  and  Cambyses3  for  a  fixed  system  of  imposts. 

The  scale  of  taxation  for  each  province  was  fixed  by  the  satrap  ; 
Darius  gained  popularity  for  himself  by  making  a  considerable 
reduction  upon  the  amount4.  He  divided  his  dominions  into 
and  Herodotus.  The  only  circumstance  in  regard  to  which  I  think  Ctesias' 
account  the  more  authentic  is  the  death  of  Cambyses,  -which  the  Egyptians 
had  an  obvious  motive  to  misrepresent,  and  which  would  be  better  known 
at  Babylon  than  in  Egypt. 

1  Burton,  Excerpta  Hierogl.  pi.  viii.  The  land  of  Pars  is  distinctly  men- 
tioaed  in  the  inscription.  Rosellini  (M.  Stor.  2,  169)  mentions  a  statue  on 
which  the  name  of  Cambyses  is  found,  but  only  as  a  date. 

2  Her.  3,  89.     Aapeios  f*iv  Vv  ko.ttti\os'    Ka/i/?uo-/jff  ce  Jcaxor/jj'     Kupoj  Si  narrip. 

3  Her.  3,  89.    'E*i  Kvpov  ipx 

<f>6pov  ncpi  dWa  StZpa  dyiveov,  4  Polysen.  7,  11,  3. 


398 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


twenty  provinces,  each  ruled  by  a  viceroy  called  a  satrap,  who  com- 
manded the  military  forces,  administered  the  affairs  of  the  province, 
and  collected  the  tribute  which  was  systematically  levied  through- 
out the  empire.  The  satrapy  of  Egypt,  besides  the  country  usually 
so  called,  included  the  coast  of  Libya  as  far  as  the  Euesperidae,  a 
iittle  westward  of  Cyrene,  and  the  oases  of  the  Libyan  Desert.  The 
country  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea  must  also  have  been 
included  in  it,  as  the  names  of  Persian  sovereigns  are  found  on  the 
road  to  Cosseir.  Ethiopia  above  Egypt,  which  had  been  subdued 
by  Cambyses,  paid  no  regular  tribute,  and  was  not  included  in  the 
satrapy ;  but  once  in  three  years  it  brought  a  voluntary  offering, 
consisting  of  two  chcenixes  (three  pints)  of  gold  dust,  two  hundred 
blocks  of  ebony,  twenty  tusks  of  ivory,  and  five  youths1.  The  tri- 
bute paid  by  the  satrapy  of  Egypt  was  seven  hundred  talents  in 
money,  independently  of  the  produce  of  the  fisheries  of  the  Lake 
Mceris,  which  amounted  to  a  talent  a  day  during  the  six  months 
that  the  water  flowed  in  from  the  Nile,  and  a  third  part  of  that  sum 
during  the  efflux'2.  Egypt  had  also  to  furnish  120,000  medimni  of 
corn  as  rations  for  the  Persian  troops  and  their  auxiliaries,  who  were 
stationed  in  the  White  Fort  of  Memphis3.  Except  in  the  payment 
of  this  tribute  (about  170,000/.  sterling),  which  cannot  be  consi- 
dered as  oppressive  to  a  country  so  productive  as  Egypt,  no  change 

1  Her.  3,  97. 

3  Her.  2,  149.  According  to  Diodorus  (1,  52)  the  revenue  of  the  Lake, 
which  he  reckons  at  a  talent  a  day,  without  distinction  of  seasons,  was 
assigned  by  Mceris  to  his  queen  for  the  expenses  of  her  toilette  (irpds  fitpa  teal 
top  a\\ov  KaWoiiriGjtdv).  This  custom  appears  to  have  been  Persian  (Her.  2, 
98),  not  Egyptian,  and  Herodotus  describes  the  revenue  of  the  Lake,  as  paid 
into  the  royal  treasury  (rd  /3aaiXfiiuv). 

3  Herodotus  (7,  187)  reckons  a  military  ration  at  a  choenix  a  day.  The 
medimnus  contained  forty-eight  chcenixes  (Bockh,  Haushaltung  der  Athe- 
ner,  1,  99),  consequently  each  man  consumed  annually  about  seven  and  a 
half  medimni,  and  the  garrison  consisted  of  about  17,000  men.  The  allow- 
ance of  a  chcenix,  however,  is  mentioned  by  Herodotus  as  a  minimum. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


399 


appears  to  have  been  made  in  the  administration.  The  nomarchs 
levied  the  tribute  and  handed  it  over  to  the  satrap1.  But  Egypt 
could  not  reap  the  full  benefit  of  the  wisdom  and  humanity  of 
Darius  under  the  government  of  a  satrap,  whose  character  was 
more  important  to  the  country  which  he  ruled  than  that  of  the 
distant  sovereign :  we  know  by  modern  examples,  that  the  tribute 
rendered  to  a  sultan  may  be  far  less  onerous  than  the  exactions  of 
a  pasha. 

When  Cambyses  was  recalled  to  Persia  by  the  usurpation  of  the 
false  Smerdis,  he  left  Aryandes  in  command  of  Egypt,  and  Darius 
continued  him  in  his  post.  Little  is  related  of  his  government 
except  his  expedition  into  Libya.  The  jealousy  which  the  Greeks 
of  Asia  and  Europe  felt  of  the  Persian  power  naturally  extended  to 
the  people  of  Cyrene  and  Barca,  and  they  suspected  their  own 
reigning  family  of  a  design  to  perpetuate  their  dominion  by  allying 
themselves  with  Persia.  The  changes  introduced  by  Demonax2 
into  the  constitution  had  been  borne  with  impatience  by  the  kings, 
whose  prerogatives  were  transferred  to  the  people ;  Arcesilaus  III. 
had  attempted  to  repossess  himself  of  the  ancient  prerogatives  and 
domains,  and  being  worsted  in  the  struggle,  had  fled  to  Samos. 
Here  he  collected  a  force,  by  means  of  which  he  re-established  him- 
self at  Cyrene,  and  having  treated  his  enemies  with  great  rigor,  and 
burnt  alive  many  of  them  who  had  taken  refuge  in  a  tower,  he  was 
induced  by  the  fear  of  vengeance  and  the  recollection  of  an  oracle 
to  withdraw  to  Barca,  where  his  father-in-law  governed.  At  Barca 
he  was  killed  by  the  inhabitants  and  some  of  the  exiles  from  Cyrene. 
His  mother  Pheretime,  who  had  fled  to  Cyprus  when  her  son  fled 
to  Samos,  had  returned,  and  administered  the  government  of 
Cyrene  till  his  assassination.    On  that  event  she  betook  herself  to 

1  Arrian,  Hist.  3,  5,  6. 

*  Her.  4,  161.  Tu  (iaoiWi  Birnu  rtfievea  i^eXwv  Kal  Ipoiavvas,  ra  aXXa  irdvra,  ret 
*p6repov  cl^ov  ol  paaiXia,  is  pieov  rut  <5r?//a>  10t)kc 


400 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


Egypt,  and  represented  to  Aryandes  that  her  son  had  incurred  the 
hostility  of  his  subjects  by  his  submitting  to  pay  tribute  to  Cam- 
byses,  and  had  been  put  to  death  because  he  leaned  to  Persia1. 
Aryandes  thought  he  saw  a  favorable  opportunity  for  reducing  all 
the  Libyans  into  a  real  dependence  on  Persia2 ;  but  he  first  sent  a 
herald  to  Barca,  to  demand  the  persons  who  had  killed  Arcesilaus. 
The  Barcaeans  adopted  it  as  the  act  of  all,  and  justified  it  by  the 
tyranny  of  which  he  had  been  guilty.  On  this  Aryandes  sent  all 
the  disposable  troops  of  Egypt  with  a  fleet3,  under  the  command  of 
Amasis  and  Badres,  against  Barca.  They  besieged  it  in  vain  for 
nine  months,  and  ultimately  obtained  possession  of  it  by  stratagem 
and  perjury.  The  generals  were  divided  in  opinion  whether  they 
should  also  attack  Cyrene,  but  Aryandes  recalled  them,  and  they 
returned  to  Egypt,  the  land  forces  having  been  much  harassed  by 
the  Libyans  on  their  march.  We  know  not  how  long  Aryandes 
continued  in  his  office  of  satrap.  Darius  had  introduced  a  gold 
coinage,  the  Daric,  a  thing  unknown  before  in  Asia,  and  Aryandes, 
in  imitation  of  his  master,  a  silver  coinage  in  Egypt.  Considering 
how  much  inconvenience  Egypt  must  have  suffered  from  the  want 
of  this  instrument  of  exchange,  there  seems  no  sufficient  reason  for 
imputing  to  Aryandes  a  desire  to  usurp  the  functions  of  sovereignty. 
But  the  actions  of  a  satrap  are  watched  with  morbid  jealousy  by 
his  superior,  and  Aryandes  had  probably  raised  discontent  among 
the  Egyptians  by  some  disrespect  to  the  national  religion,  so  that 
theyT  were  on  the  point  of  revolting4.  Darius,  passing  through  the 
Arabian  Desert,  came  in  person  to  Egypt,  which  he  had  not  visited 

1  Her.  4,  165.     Tlooiff^OjiEvr]  Trpotyaaiv      Sia  rou  MqJi oy^ov  6  naT$  oi  reOvrjKS. 

2  Her.  4,  167.  Dahlmann  (Herodot,  aus  seinem  Buehe  sein  Leben,  2,  p. 
164)  doubts  this  project  of  Aryandes. 

8  To  separate  the  civil  administration  from  the  military  power  in  the 
satrapies  appears  to  have  been  a  subsequent  refinement  of  Persian  policy. 
See  Heeren,  Ideen,  1,  1,  524,  Germ. 

*Polyam.  7,  11,  7. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


401 


since  he  had  attended  Cambyses  as  one  of  his  body-guards1,  put 
Aryandes  to  death,  and  conciliated  the  Egyptians  by  the  offer  of  a 
reward  for  the  discovery  of  an  Apis,  whose  place  was  at  that  time 
vacant.  We  do  not  know  the  exact  year  of  this  visit,  but  that  it 
was  subsequent  to  the  Scythian  expedition  of  Darius,  which  took 
place  508  b.  c,  we  learn  from  an  anecdote  preserved  both  by 
Herodotus  and  Diodorus2.  He  wished  to  erect  a  statue  of  himself 
at  Memphis,  in  front  of  the  temple  of  Ptah,  and  before  that  of 
Rameses-Sesostris.  The  high -priest  remonstrated,  and  ventured  to 
observe,  that  he  had  not  equalled  the  exploits  of  Sesostris  ;  for  that 
he  had  not  been  able,  like  him,  to  subdue  the  Scythians.  Darius 
was  so  far  from  resenting  this  allusion  to  his  unsuccessful  expedi- 
tion, that  he  was  pleased  with  the  priest's  freedom  of  speech,  and 
in  reference  to  the  long  reign  of  Sesostris  replied,  that  if  he  lived  as 
long  he  hoped  to  accomplish  as  much.  The  Egyptians  reckoned 
him  after  Menes,  Sasyches,  Sesostris,  Bocchoris,  and  Amasis,  the 
sixth  of  their  great  legislators.  We  may  therefore  conclude,  not- 
withstanding the  silence  of  history,  that  he  made  regulations  for 
Egypt  which  secured  its  religion  from  the  outrages  to  which  it  had 
been  exposed  from  the  fanaticism  of  Cambyses  and  Aryandes,  and 
protected  the  people  from  oppression.  "  Hating,"  says  Diodorus, 
"  the  lawless  violence  of  Cambyses  against  the  Egyptian  temples, 
he  pursued  a  humane  and  pious  course  of  life.  He  associated  fami- 
liarly with  the  Egyptian  priests,  who  imparted  to  him  a  knowledge 
of  their  theology  and  the  history  contained  in  their  sacred  books. 
Learning  from  these  the  magnanimity  of  their  ancient  kings  and 
their  mildness  towards  their  subjects,  he  imitated  their  course  of 
life,  and  was  so  much  honored  by  them,  that  he  alone  of  the  kings3 

1  Her.  3,  139.  3  Her.  2,  110.    Diod.  1,  58. 

3  Diod.  1,  95.  He  means  of  course  the  Persian  kings,  who  are  here 
opposed  to  the  to  xaXatop  vofiijicirara  (SatriXsvaaai  tear  Aiyvurov.  Comp.  1,  90. 
AoKOvatv  A.iyviTTioi  tovs  lavriov  0affi\eTs  irpoo-icvvetv  rs  kou  ri^nv^  ois  npos  d\f\6uav 
Suras  Beovs. 


402 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


during  his  lifetime  was  called  a  god  by  the  Egyptians,  and  after  his 
death  received  the  same  honors  as  the  ancient  kings  who  had 
reigned  most  equitably."  The  monuments  confirm  these  accounts. 
He  is  the  only  Persian  king  whose  name  is  accompanied  with  a 
titular  shield,  and  whose  phonetic  shield  bears  the  crest  of  the  vul- 
panser  and  disk,  "  son  of  the  Sun."  It  is  remarkable,  however, 
that  neither  his  name  nor  that  of  any  of  the  Persian  monarchs,  is 
found  on  a  public  monument  within  the  limits  of  Egypt.  On  an 
ornament  of  porcelain  preserved  in  the  museum  of  Florence,  he  is 
called  "  beneficent  god1,"  and  this  adoption  of  his  name  on  an  arti- 
cle of  familiar  use  is  perhaps  the  strongest  proof  of  the  affection 
which  the  Egyptians  bore  to  his  person.  He  even  appears  to  have 
carried  his  conformity  so  far  as  to  offer  worship  to  their  gods.  At 
least  he  is  represented  in  a  sculpture  with  a  sacerdotal  ornament 
on  his  head,  with  a  lighted  lamp  in  each  hand  (the  emblem  of  fire, 
the  great  divinity  of  Persia)  before  a  shrine,  in  which  stand  Athor, 
and  Osiris  in  the  form  of  a  mummy2. 

It  was  probably  on  occasion  of  this  visit  of  Darius  that  the 
Persians  obtained  possession  of  the  Great  Oasis  and  the  Oasis  of 
Siwah,  the  temples  in  both  bearing  his  inscriptions.  He  resumed 
the  excavation  of  the  canal  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea, 
which  Sesostris  attempted  and  Neco  partially  executed.  Its 
length,  from  near  Bubastis  to  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  was  four  days' 
navigation.  It  should  seem,  however,  that  even  Darius  did  not 
actually  open  a  communication  between  the  end  of  the  canal  and 
the  Red  Sea,  though  he  left  a  very  narrow  space  between  them3. 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  170.  Wilkinson,  M.  and  C.  1,  199.  The  same 
title  is  given  to  Xerxes  in  an  inscription  on  the  Cosseir  road.  (Burton, 
Exc.  Hierog.  pL  14.) 

3  Champollion  Figeac,  L'Univers,  pi.  8*7.  The  evidence  which  such  a 
monument  supplies  of  an  actual  offering  of  worship  by  Darius,  is  weakened 
by  our  finding  a  similar  representation  of  Tiberius.  See  the  same  work, 
pi.  91. 

8  A  monument  with  cuneiform  characters  was  found  by  the  French  near 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


403 


He  is  said  to  have  been  deterred  from  cutting  through  this  space, 
by  the  discovery  that  the  level  of  the  Red  Sea  was  higher  than 
that  of  Egypt1.  The  Macedonian  rulers  of  Egypt  appear  to  have 
been  the  first  who  made  the  communication  perfect,  and  placed  a 
lock  at  the  entrance  from  the  sea.  The  through-navigation  would 
be  practicable  only  during  a  few  weeks  of  the  year,  when  the  Nile 
is  highest. 

The  road  from  Coptos  to  Cosseir,  judging  from  the  inscriptions 
bearing  the  names  of  Persian  sovereigns,  must  have  been  much 
frequented  in  these  times,  and  was  probably  the  principal  channel 
of  the  trade  with  Arabia  and  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  The 
increase  of  commercial  intercourse  with  strangers  is  indicated  by 
the  number  of  contracts  in  the  demotic  character  which  bear  date 
in  the  reign  of  Darius2.  This  character  appears  to  hav^e  been 
invented  for  such  uses,  and  no  specimens  of  it  are  found  older  than 
Psammitichus3. 

The  relations  of  Egypt  with  Greece  probably  remained  friendly 
during  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Darius ;  the  resort  of  Greeks 
thither  for  commercial  purposes  and  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
continued.  A  change  would  take  place  after  the  revolt,  as  it  is 
called,  of  the  Ionian  cities  from  the  Persian  power,  and  the  burn- 
ing of  Sardis  in  499  b.c.4  The  Egyptians  formed  a  part  of  the 
fleet  which  Persia  employed  for  the  reduction  of  Miletus5.  From 
that  time,  Greeks,  at  least  Ionian  Greeks,  the  principal  travellers 
whether  for  profit  or  improvement,  would  be  excluded  from  the 
dependencies  of  Persia,  and  Egypt  would  not  be  open  to  them 
again,  until  she  regained  a  temporary  independence  under  Inaros 
and  Amyrtaeus. 

the  Bitter  Lakes.  See  Roziere,  Deser.  de  l'Egypte  Antiq.  Mem.  1,  p.  265. 
It  contains  part  of  the  name  of  Darius.    (Lepsius,  EinL  1,  354,  note.) 

1  Strabo,  IT,  p.  804,  says,  66^  ipevSel  ireicOsis.    See  p.  836  of  this  vol. 

a  Champollion  Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  379. 

8  Rosellini,  M.  S.  2,  172,  174.    Lepsius,  Lettre  a  M.  Rosellim,  p.  19. 
4  Fynes  Clinton,  Fasti  Hellen.  sub  anno.  6  Her.  6,  6. 


404 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


When  Darius  quitted  Egypt,  which  he  had  probably  visited  in 
the  interval  between  his  return  to  Susa  after  his  Scythian  expedi- 
tion1 and  the  commencement  of  his  wars  with  the  Ionians,  he 
appointed  Amasis  satrap  of  Egypt.  lie  may  have  been  the  same 
who  had  led  the  Persian  fleet  against  Barca  ;  the  evidence  of  his 
having  held  the  office  is,  that  a  shield  with  this  name  and  the 
word  Melek  inscribed  over  it,  has  been  found  on  the  Cosseir  road8. 
The  title  is  neither  Coptic  nor  Persian,  but  Semitic  ;  that  it  was 
familiar,  however,  to  the  Egyptians  is  evident  from  its  occurrence 
in  the  list  of  the  nations  conquered  by  Sheshonk3.  Amasis,  the 
father  of  Psammenitus,  cannot  be  meant,  as  we  have  his  shields 
with  the  full  Pharaonic  titles.  Another  shield,  preceded  by  the 
word  Melek,  has  been  found  at  the  same  place,  and  the  characters 
which  it  contains  have  been  read,  "  Nephra  son  of  Amasis."  It 
bears  date  the  30th  year  of  Darius  (b.c.  489),  and  therefore  Nephra 
seems  to  have  succeeded  Amasis  in  the  satrapy.  The  defeat  of 
Darius'  troops  at  Marathon  in  the  year  490,  offered  to  the  Egyp- 
tians a  prospect  of  recovering  their  liberty,  and  while  all  Asia 
resounded  with  the  preparations  which  he  made  for  three  years  to 
invade  Greece,  and  efface  the  dishonor  of  his  arms4,  Egypt  revolted 
(b.c.  48G).  He  died  (b.c.  485)  just  when  his  preparations  for 
attacking  Egypt  and  Athens  were  complete,  and  left  the  execution 
of  his  enterprises  to  his  son  Xerxes.  The  latest  record  of  Darius' 
reign  is  a  contract  in  the  demotic  character,  dated  in  the  month 
Phamenoth  of  his  35  th  year.  An  inscription  in  the  Cosseir  road 
mentions  his  36th  year,  but  this  was  engraved  under  the  reign  of 
Xerxes,  who  having  recovered  possession  of  Egypt,  considered  his 
predecessor's  reign  as  uninterrupted,  notwithstanding  the  revolt  at 
its  close5.  Herodotus  and  the  lists  agree  in  assigning  36  years  as 
the  length  of  Darius'  reign. 


1  Her.  5,  11,  25.  2  Burton's  Exc.  Hierog.  pi.  3,  4. 

8  See  p.  293  of  this  vol.  4  Herod.  1,  1,  4. 

5  Rosellini,  M.  Stor.  2,  174.    Burton,  Exc.  Hierog.  14,  3. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


405 


We  know  not  by  whom  the  revolt  of  the  Egyptians  was  headed, 
or  what  form  of  government  was  established  during  the  brief 
interval  of  its  independence.  The  entire  history  of  this  event, 
which  was  almost  lost  to  the  Greek  historians  in  the  magnitude 
of  the  impending  struggle  between  Persia  and  Greece,  is  contained 
in  a  few  words  of  Herodotus.  Xerxes  was  disinclined  from  a 
Grecian  war,  but  Mardonius  exhorted  him  first  to  tame  the  inso- 
lence of  the  revolted  Egyptians,  and  then  to  lead  his  army  against 
Athens.  The  advice  was  sound  as  regarded  the  order  of  his 
operations.  To  have  attacked  Greece,  before  Egypt  was  reduced, 
would  have  deprived  him  of  the  most  valuable  part  of  his  naval 
force  except  the  Phoenicians  :  it  might  have  added  an  Egyptian 
fleet  to  the  navy  of  the  Greeks.  In  the  year  after  the  death  of 
Darius,  therefore,  he  made  an  expedition  against  Egypt,  and 
having  subdued  it  apparently  with  little  difficulty  (b.c.  484), 
reduced  it  to  a  condition  of  much  more  severe  dependence  than  it 
had  experienced  under  Darius1,  and  appointed  his  brother  Achae- 
menes  satrap,  who  governed  it  for  twenty-four  years,  till  he  lost 
his  life  in  the  revolt  of  Inaros,  b.c.  460. 

In  the  invasion  of  Greece,  on  which  Xerxes  entered  after  four 
years  of  additional  preparation,  by  marching  from  Sardis  in  the 
spring  of  the  year  480  b.c,  the  Egyptians  bore  a  very  important 
part.  They  furnished  200  ships.  The  Calasirians  and  Hermoty- 
bians  (for  the  old  names  were  still  kept  up)  served  on  board  of  them  as 
einhatae  or  marines,  and  were  armed  specially  for  this  service  with 
boarding-spears  and  large  hatchets*.  They  assisted  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  bridge  of  boats  by  which  the  Persian  army  crossed  the 
Hellespont,  furnishing  the  ropes  of  papyrus  as  the  Phoenicians  did 
those  of  flax,  and  conveyed  corn  to  the  places  at  which  magazines 
were  to  be  established  for  the  supply  of  the  army3.  In  the  battle 
of  Artemisium  they  distinguished  themselves  above  the  whole 


1  Her.  1,  7. 


a  Her.  V,  89. 


s  Her.  7,  34.  25. 


406 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


fleet,  and  captured  five  Greek  vessels  with  their  crews1.  None  of 
them  were  enrolled  in  the  land-army  of  Xerxes,  but  when  the  fleet 
lay  at  Phalerum,  Mardonius  disembarked  the  fighting  portion  of 
the  crews,  and  they  served  as  swordsmen  in  the  battle  of  Platea2. 
The  internal  history  of  Egypt  is  an  entire  blank  from  this 
time  to  the  death  of  Xerxes,  no  doubt  because  all  access  to  that 
country  was  forbidden  to  the  Greeks.  The  name  of  Achaemenes 
is  not  found  on  any  Egyptian  monument,  but  that  of  Xerxes 
occurs  on  the  Cosseir  road  with  the  date  of  his  seventh  year3. 
Early  in  the  history  of  hieroglyphical  discovery,  Champollion  read 
the  name  of  Xerxes  in  Egyptian  and  cuneiform  characters  on  an 
alabaster  vase  in  the  royal  library  at  Paris,  confirming  his  own 
discoveries  and  those  of  Grotefend. 

Xerxes  was  assassinated  by  Artabanus  in  the  year  B.o.  465, 
and  after  an  internal  of  a  few  months4  was  succeeded  by  Arta- 
xerxes  Longimanus,  the  second  of  his  sons,  in  464  b.c.  The  com- 
mencement of  his  reign  appeared  to  offer  a  favorable  opportunity 
of  revolt  to  the  Egyptians5.  The  Persian  power  had  been  greatly 
weakened  by  the  result  of  Xerxes'  invasion  of  Greece.  Not  only  had 
his  immense  fleet  and  army  been  destroyed,  but  the  Greeks,  follow- 
ing up  their  victory,  had  driven  the  Persians  from  the  Thracian 
Chersonesus,  from  Byzantium,  from  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
from  Cyprus  ;  and  Xerxes  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign  had  aban- 
doned himself  to  luxury,  and  the  baneful  intrigues  and  jealousies 
of  his  court  and  harem.  The  first  care  of  Artaxerxes  was  to 
punish  the  murderers  of  his  father  and  brother,  and  substitute 
satraps  friendly  to  his  interests  in  those  governments  from  which 
he  apprehended  hostility6.  Artapanus,  satrap  of  Bactria,  made  an 
obstinate  resistance,  and  was  only  subdued  after  two  pitched 

1  Her.  8,  17.  2  Her.  9,  32.  3  Burton,  Exc.  Hierog.  pi.  14. 

4  Eusebius,  Chron.  p.  31,  ed.  Scaliger,  makes  Artabanus  to  have  reigned 
seven  months  after  his  assassination  of  Xerxes  and  his  eldest  son  Darius. 
6  Diod.  11,  71.  6  Diod  11,  11. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


407 


battles1.  The  Egyptians  thus  obtained  time  for  maturing  their 
revolt.  Inaros,  the  son  of  Psammitichus,  probably  a  descendant 
of  the  Saitic  princes,  had  made  himself  king  of  the  Libyans  who 
bordered  on  Egypt,  and  advanced  with  an  army  from  Marea,  the 
frontier  town  near  the  later  site  of  Alexandria2.  He  was  joined 
by  nearly  the  whole  population  of  Egypt,  and  all  the  Persian  reve- 
nue officers  were  driven  out.  Inaros  raised  a  body  of  native 
troops  and  enlisted  mercenaries,  but  as  it  was  evident  that  he  would 
have  to  contend  with  the  whole  force  of  Persia,  as  soon  as  order 
was  established  at  home,  he  was  naturally  led  to  seek  an  alliance 
with  Athens.  At  this  time  an  Athenian  fleet  of  200  triremes  was 
engaged  in  operations  against  Cyprus.  To  them  Inaros  would 
naturally  make  his  first  proposals,  but  it  is  not  probable  that  they 
would  act  upon  them  without  authority  from  x\thens.  According 
to  Diodorus,  he  promised,  besides  many  other  advantages,  to  share 
with  them  the  sovereignty  of  Egypt3.  Such  prospects  were  irre- 
sistible to  the  Athenian  people,  in  whom  success  had  already  opened 
boundless  hopes  of  dominion  ;  they  could  hardly  plead  self-defence, 
for  with  the  possession  of  Cyprus  they  were  secure  against  any 
molestation  by  Persia.  Forty  triremes4  were  accordingly  detached 
from  the  fleet  off  Cyprus.  Artaxerxes  in  the  meantime  had  been 
collecting  a  fleet  and  army  from  all  the  satrapies  of  his  empire, 
and  was  about  to  take  the  command  in  person,  but  on  the  advice 
of  his  friends  gave  it  up  to  Achaemenes,  who  appears  to  have  fled 
from  Egypt  to  Persia  after  the  first  victory  of  Inaros5.  Achaemenes, 
after  a  short  interval  employed  in  recruiting  his  army,  advanced 

1  Ctes.  Pers.  c.  31,  ed.  Baehr.  9  Thuc.  1,  104.  3  Diod.  11,  71. 

4  Ctes.  Pers.  c.  32.  Diod.  11,  74,  says  200.  The  contraction  of  Thucy- 
dides,  1,  104,  Oi  61  erv%ov  yap  is  Ktirpoy  arparevofjicvoi  pavcri  SiaKoaiats  t)\dov}  is 
ambiguous. 

5  Diodorus,  11,  74,  says  that  the  Achaemenes  who  commanded  the  expedi- 
tion was  the  son  of  Darius.  Ctesias  calls  him  Achsemenides,  brother  of 
Artaxerxes. 


408 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


against  Inaros,  who  had  retired  to  the  western  side  of  Egypt  to 
collect  his  forces  from  Libya  and  avail  himself  of  the  aid  of  the 
Athenians  ;  and  here  at  Papremis1  a  great  battle  was  fought,  in 
which  Inaros  slew  Achaemenes  with  his  own  hand,  and  the  Per- 
sians were  defeated  chiefly  by  the  valor  of  the  Athenians.  The 
Persians  fled  to  Memphis  ;  the  Athenians  sailed  up  the  river  in 
pursuit  of  them,  and  having  possessed  themselves  of  two  out  of 
the  three  regions  of  the  city,  besieged  the  Persians  and  the  Egyp- 
tians who  adhered  to  them  in  the  citadel  called  the  White  Fortress. 
Artaxerxes  first  endeavored  to  oblige  the  Athenians  to  recall  their 
fleet  from  Egypt  by  sending  Megabazus  with  gold  to  Sparta,  to 
induce  the  Peloponnesians  to  make  an  irruption  into  Attica.  His 
money  was  expended  in  vain;  Athens  had  just  placed  .herself  in 
security  by  the  completion  of  the  Long  Walls3,  and  had  shown  how 
formidable  was  her  naval  power  by  sailing  round  the  Peloponnesus 
and  burning  the  naval  arsenal  of  the  Lacedaemonians.  On  the 
return  of  Megabazus,  Artaxerxes  collected  another  armament3,  of 
which  he  gave  the  command  to  Megabyzus  the  son  of  Zopyrus. 
The  fleet  was  equipped  in  Cilicia,  and  being  joined  by  the  army 
which  had  marched  from  Persia,  proceeded  by  the  coasts  of  Syria 
and  Phoenicia  to  Egypt.  The  Athenians  and  Egyptians  were  still 
blockading  the  White  Citadel,  which  during  more  than  a  year 
they  had  been  unable  to  reduce4.  The  news  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Persians  caused  them  to  raise  the  siege  and  retire  into  Lower 
Egypt5.  They  established  themselves  in  the  island  Prosopitis, 
formed  by  a  canal  from  the  Canopic  branch  of  the  Nile,  by  com- 
manding the  navigation  of  which  they  kept  open  their  communi- 

1  See  Mannert,  Geogr.  x.  1,  p.  591,  for  the  position  of  Papremis  in  the 
western  part  of  the  Delta.    (Diod.  11,  74.)  2  Thuc.  1,  108,  109. 

3  Diodorus  says,  of  300,000  men.  This  is  a  standing  number  with  him. 
(11,74,75.)  4  Diod.  11,  75. 

6  Ctesias  speaks  of  an  engagement  in  which  Inaros  was  wounded  and 
some  of  the  Greeks  killed  (c.  33),  and  Thucydides  agrees  with  him. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


40-9 


cation  with  the  sea1.  After  the  experience  which  they  had  had  of 
Grecian  valor,  the  Persians  abstained  from  battles  in  the  field3 ; 
availing  themselves  of  the  dry  season,  they  succeeded  at  the  end 
of  fifteen  months  in  diverting  the  water  from  the  channel  in  which 
the  Athenian  fleet  lay,  and  the  ships  being  thus  useless,  the  Egyp- 
tians were  alarmed  and  made  conditions  for  themselves.  The 
Athenians  burnt  their  triremes,  and  were  preparing  for  a  desperate 
defence  :  as  they  were  still  6000  in  number,  the  Persian  com- 
manders did  not  desire  to  drive  them  to  extremities,  and  agreed  to 
allow  them  to  retire  from  Egypt.  Through  Libya  they  reached 
Cyrene,  but  only  a  small  remnant  returned  in  safety  to  Athens3. 
Inaros,  and  some  of  the  Greeks,  were  carried  to  Susa  ;  their  lives 
were  at  first  spared,  according  to  the  capitulation ;  but  Amytis, 
the  mother  of  Achsemenes,  who  had  been  killed  by  Inaros,  suc- 
ceeded after  five  years,  in  persuading  the  king  to  give  up  Inaros 
to  her,  and  he  was  crucified.  Thannyris,  the  son  of  Inaros,  suc- 
ceeded him  in  his  government  of  Libya4 ;  Sarsames  was  made 
satrap  of  Egypt.  A  further  misfortune  befell  the  A  them's  ns  ;  fifty 
triremes,  destined  to  reinforce  the  armament,  touched  at  the  Mende- 
sian  mouth,  in  ignorance  of  what  had  happened.  They  were  attacked 
by  the  Phoenician  fleet  and  Egyptian  land-forces5,  and  nearly  all 
destroyed.  These  transactions  occupied  a  space  of  six  years,  from 
462  to  456  B.C.,  but  the  chronology  of  each  is  not  easily  fixed. 

The  Persians  thus  obtained  possession  of  the  greater  part  of 
Egypt ;  but  the  marsh-lands  near  the  mouths  of  the  Nile,  being 
extensive,  difficult  of  access,  and  inhabited  by  a  warlike  popula- 
tion, were  not  subdued6.  There  was  in  this  district  an  island  called 
Elbo,  in  which  Anysis  many  years  before  had  taken  refuge  during 
the  invasion  of  the  Ethiopians7.    Here  Amyrtseus,  descended  from 

1  Champ.,  Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  2, 162.  Ctesias  calls  the  place  to  which 
Inaros  fled  Byblos,  a  name  otherwise  unknown  to  Egyptian  topography. 

2  Diod.  11,  11.  *  Thuc.  1,  110.  4  Herod.  3,  15.  Ctes.  c.  35. 
6  Thucyd.  1,  110.         6  Thucyd.  1,  110.        '  Herod.  2;  1  40. 

VOL.  II.  18 


410 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


the  Saitic  dynasty,  established  himself  and  maintained  his  inde- 
pendence. The  Athenians,  during  a  temporary  remission  of  their 
war  with  the  states  of  Peloponnesus,  after  the  peace  of  Five  Years 
(b.  c.  450),  turned  their  attention  again  to  Cyprus  and  Egypt1,  and 
sent  sixty  ships  to  the  latter  country  on  the  invitation  of  Amyr- 
tseus.  In  Cyprus  they  were  victorious2,  but  the  death  of  Cimon 
(b.  c.  449)  put  an  end  to  the  expedition,  and  the  ships  that  had 
sailed  to  Egypt  returned  at  the  same  time  to  Athens  without  hav- 
ing accomplished  anything.  Amyrtaeus  made  submission  to  the 
Persians,  and  his  son  Pausiris  was  allowed  to  succeed  to  his  father's 
power3.    No  monuments  remain  of  any  of  these  rulers. 

Of  the  condition  of  Egypt  under  the  re-established  rule  of  Persia, 
we  obtain  some  incidental  account  from  Herodotus.  The  inter- 
course of  the  Greeks  with  the  interior  of  that  country  had  neces- 
sarily been  suspended,  during  the  insurrection  of  Inaros  and  Amyr- 
tseus  ;  it  was  renewed  after  the  Athenian  fleet  had  withdrawn,  and 
peace  virtually,  if  not  formally,  been  established  between  Greece 
and  Persia.  Artaxerxes  resumed  the  mild  and  tolerant  policy  of 
Darius.  Herodotus  describes  the  state  of  things  which  he  saw  in 
Egypt,  subsequently  to  the  battle  of  Papremis4,  and  probably  to 
the  suppression  of  the  revolt  in  456  b.  c.  The  country  appears  to 
have  been  in  profound  peace,  for  Herodotus  proceeded  from  the 
sea  to  the  limits  of  Ethiopia  without  molestation.  A  traveller 
might  even  pass  these  limits  and  ascend  the  Nile  as  far  as  Meroe. 
Democritus,  who  was  a  little  younger  than  Herodotus,  and  spent  five 
years  in  Egypt,  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  sacred  characters  of  Meroe5. 

1  Thucyd.  1,  112.    Plut.  Cim.  18.  9  Plut.  Cira.  18. 

8  Herod.  3,  15.  4  3,  12. 

6  Diog.  Laert.  9,  49.  Fynes  Clinton,  F.  H.  sub  an.  460  b.  c.  Herod.  2, 
29.  Eusebius  (Chron.  p.  53,  ed.  Scalig.)  has  a  singular  statement  respecting 
Democritus  and  a  Jewess  learned  in  mysteries  named  Maria,  which  Scaliger 
(p.  419)  thinks  an  interpolation  of  the  monk  Panodorus.  See  p.  75  of  this 
vol.    Jablonsk.,  Panth.  JEjg.  Prol.  cxliv. 


THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  DYNASTY. 


411 


The  frontier  towns  and  Memphis1  were  occupied  by  Persian  troops  ; 
but  the  worship  at  the  temples,  the  celebration  of  the  panegyrics, 
wrent  on  as  usual ;  Greeks  were  found  in  all  the  principal  towns, 
engaged  in  commerce  and  unmolested  by  the  Egyptians,  notwith- 
standing the  strong  repulsion  which  manners  and  religion  placed 
between  them2. 

Yet  on  the  first  opportunity  which  the  state  of  Persia  appeared 
to  offer  for  throwing  off  the  yoke,  the  Egyptians  were  eager  to 
avail  themselves  of  it.  No  other  nation  which  formed  a  part  of 
the  Persian  empire  was  so  loosely  connected  with  the  general  body 
as  Egypt.  It  was  in  contact  with  it  at  a  single  point  only,  and 
even  there  difficult  of  access.  No  other  nation  could  boast  of  so 
long  an  antecedent  independence  as  Egypt ;  the  power  of  the 
Assyrians  and  Babylonians  was  of  recent  origin,  compared  with 
the  monarchy  of  the  Pharaohs.  Religion,  however,  was  the 
strongest  obstacle  to  union  between  the  Egyptians  and  their  mas- 
ters. Though  persecution  had  ceased,  the  priests  of  the  national 
religion  had  lost  the  ascendency  which  they  had  once  enjoyed. 
They  might  possess  their  revenues  without  disturbance  or  diminu- 
tion, and  worship  their  native  gods  without  hindrance ;  but  they 
no  longer  chose  their  sovereign,  enrolled  him  in  their  order,  regu- 
lated his  public  policy,  and  controlled  his  daily  actions.  The 
tolerance  which  the  Persians  practised  left  the  priests  in  possession 
of  all  their  ancient  power  over  the  minds  of  the  common  people, 
whom  it  would  be  easy  for  them  to  stir  up  to  rebellion,  when  a 
favorable  occasion  offered  itself.  During  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes, 
who  governed  with  great  vigor  for  forty  years,  they  remained 
quiet.  The  domestic  quarrels  of  the  Greeks,  who  were  engaged 
in  the  latter  part  of  it  in  the  Peloponnesian  War,  prevented  their 
giving  aid  to  Egypt,  which  without  it  could  have  no  hope  of  suc- 
cess in  a  revolt  from  Persia. 


1  Eer.  2,  30,  99. 


8  Herod.  2,  41. 


412 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


On  the  death  of  Artaxerxes,  b.  c.  425,  the  usual  disputes  respect- 
ing the  succession  distracted  the  monarchy.  His  legitimate  suc- 
cessor, Xerxes  II.,  was  immediately  murdered  by  his  brother 
Sogdianus,  and  he  in  turn  by  Ochus,  who  possessed  himself  of 
the  throne  under  the  name  of  Darius,  and  is  distinguished  by  the 
addition  of  Nothus  (illegitimate),  b.  c.  424.  He  was  not  allowed 
to  retain  it  without  a  struggle.  His  brother  Arsites  raised  a 
revolt,  and  was  only  subdued  by  the  help  of  Greek  mercenaries  in 
the  service  of  Persia.  The  satrap  of  Egypt,  Arxanes1,  had  declared 
himself  for  Ochus,  when  he  rebelled  against  Sogdianus  ;  but  this 
was  merely  a  declaration  of  the  Persian  forces  in  favor  of  one 
sovereign  and  against  another,  in  which  the  Egyptians  had  no 
interest.  When,  however,  a  truce  for  fifty  years  had  been  made 
between  the  Peloponnesians,  Lacedcemonians  and  Athenians,  b.  c. 
421,  the  hope  of  Athenian  aid,  which  was  now  the  hinge  of  Egyp- 
tian policy  in  its  relations  with  Persia,  would  naturally  revive,  and 
a  revolt  speedily  followed2.  It  began  in  the  second  year  of  Darius 
Nothus  ;  but  was  either  suppressed  or  was  very  limited  in  its 
extent,  till  the  tenth  year  of  the  same  sovereign's  reign,  b.  c.  414. 
In  the  interval  the  short  truce  between  the  contending  powers  in 
Greece  had  been  broken,  and  the  Athenians  had  engaged  in  the 
expedition  to  Sicily  which  in  the  following  year  produced  such 
disastrous  results.  Egypt  therefore  had  to  struggle  unaided  for 
her  independence.  Once  more  we  chronicle  the  events  of  Egyp- 
tian history  by  the  years  of  a  native  dynasty. 

Twenty-eighth  Dynasty. 

Years. 

Amyrt^bus  the  Saite,  reigned  6 

It  has  been  supposed  that  this  Amyrtseus  is  the  same  person  who 

1  Ctes.  Pers.  c.  4*7,  ed.  Baehr. 

2  Syncell.  p.  256  D.     Aiywrroj  dniarr)  Hepauii/  divriput  erei  Ndflot  Aapeiov. 


THE  TWENTY-EIGHTH  DYNASTY. 


413 


established  himself  in  the  marshy  regions  of  the  Delta1,  nearly 
forty  years  before,  and  had  there  maintained  an  independent  sove- 
reignty, till  this  new  revolt  called  him  forth  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  his  countrymen.  Nothing  favors  this  supposition,  except 
the  identity  of  the  name,  and  it  involves  serious  chronological 
difficulties.  Probably  the  Amyrtaeus  who  constitutes  the  twenty- 
eighth  dynasty  was  the  grandson  of  him  who  fled  into  the  marshes, 
and  the  son  of  that  Panaris  to  whom,  according  to  Herodotus,  the 
Persians  conceded  the  sovereignty  which  his  father  had  exercised. 
The  attachment  of  the  Egyptians  to  the  ancient  line  of  the  Saitic 
kings  sufficiently  explains  their  placing  Amyrtaeus  at  the  head  of 
their  re-established  monarchy.  History  is  entirely  silent  respect- 
ing the  events  by  which  they  regained  their  independence.  Their 
success  might  be  aided  by  the  revolt  of  the  Persian  satraps  of 
Lydia  and  Caria,  Pisuthnes  and  his  son  Amorges,  whom  the 
Athenians  assisted  by  a  body  of  mercenary  troops  under  Lycon2. 
That  they  maintained  friendly  relations  with  Athens,  which  was 
then  engaged  in  hostility  with  Persia,  is  evident  from  the  mention 
of  corn-ships  sailing  from  Egypt  to  Athens,  which  the  Pelopon- 
nesians  planned  to  intercept  at  the  Triopian  Promontory3.  To  pro- 
tect themselves  from  invasion  by  land  on  the  part  of  the  Persians, 
the  Egyptians  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  Arabians,  without 
whose  concurrence  an  army  could  not  enter  from  Palestine.  They 
also  endeavored,  in  conjunction  with  the  Arabians,  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  Phoenicia,  the  great  source  of  the  naval  power  of  Persia  ; 
but  Pharnabazus  suddenly  appeared  on  the  Phoenician  coast  with 
three  hundred  triremes  and  frustrated  this  design4. 

In  this  dearth  of  historical  information  the  monuments  give  us 

1  See  p.  409  of  this  vol.  2  Ctes.  Pers.  52.    Time.  8,  5. 

3  Thuc.  8,  35,  with  Poppo's  note. 

4  Diod.  13,  46.  From  Thuc.  8,  109  (raj  6ia,3o\us  ncpl  rdv  Qmvioauiv  vtdv\  it 
should  seem  as  if  Diodorus  had  confounded  Pharnabazus  with  Tissaphernee, 
See  Ley,  Fata  Egypti  sub  imperio  Persarum,  p.  55. 


414 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


valuable  aid,  by  showing  that  Amyrtseus  was  sovereign  of  the 
whole  kingdom  of  Egypt  and  its  dependencies,  and  that  Manetho 
was  justified  in  assigning  him  that  rank.  In  the  temple  of  Chons 
at  Karnak  is  an  inscription,  expressing  that  it  had  been  repaired 
by  him, — the  first  record  of  any  such  work,  since  Thebes  was 
destroyed  by  Cambyses1.  The  temple  of  Eilithya,  dedicated  to 
Sevek,  bears  a  record  of  a  similar  restoration  by  the  same  sove- 
reign. The  shield  at  Karnak  appears  also  to  express  that  he  had 
been  the  conqueror  of  the  "  land  of  Heb,"  or  the  Great  Oasis  ;  and 
his  name  has  been  found  on  the  temple  in  the  Oasis  of  El  Khargeh, 
in  a  position  which  shows  that  it  was  introduced  subsequently  to 
that  of  Darius2.  At  his  death  his  body  was  placed  in  a  magnifi- 
cent sarcophagus  of  green  breccia.  This  was  one  of  the  trophies 
of  the  British  expedition  to  Egypt,  having  been  taken  by  the 
French  from  the  mosch  which  had  formerly  been  the  basilica  of 
St.  Athanasius.  Dr.  E.  D.  Clarke  supposed  it  to  have  been  the 
sarcophagus  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  but  it  bears  the  shield  of 
Amyrtseus3,  and  by  its  size  and  beauty  of  execution,  proves  that 
art  had  declined  but  little  since  the  days  of  Psammitichus.  Amyr- 
tseus reigned  only  six  years,  and  the  Saite  dynasty  expired  with 
him  (b.c.  408)  ;  an  additional  proof  that  he  is  not  the  Amyrtseus 
of  Herodotus,  who  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Pausiris. 


Twenty-ninth  Dynasty.    Four  Mendesian  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Nepherites,  reigned  6 

2.  Achoris  13 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  201.  There  is  some  obscurity  in  the  characters, 
but  Egyptologists  are  generally  agreed  that  the  shield  belongs  to  Amyrtseus. 
(Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  383.) 

3  Wilkinson,  Mod.  Egypt  and  Thebes,  2,  367. 

3  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  205 ;  an  engraving  of  it  is  given  in  the  great 
French  work  on  Egypt,  Ant  vol.  5,  pi.  40. 


THE  TWENTY-NINTH  DYNASTY. 


415 


Years. 
1 

0     4  months. 
20  4 

[Eusebius  in  Syneellus  adds  a  fifth,  Muthis,  reigning  one  year.    In  the 
Armenian,  Muthis  is  placed  before  Xepherites.] 

It  may  appear  singular  that  no  attempt  should  have  been  made 
by  Persia  to  recover  its  dominion  over  Egypt,  especially  at  the 
extinction  of  the  Saitic  dynasty,  and  that  a  new  family  should  have 
been  allowed  quietly  to  possess  itself  of  the  throne.  Just  at  this 
time,  however,  the  Persian  power  was  shaken  by  a  revolt  of  the 
Medes1,  who  had  endeavored  in  the  time  of  Cambyses  to  regain 
their  lost  ascendency  in  what  was  called  the  conspiracy  of  the 
Magi,  and  had  never  been  reconciled  to  the  monopoly  of  the  great 
offices  of  government  which  the  Persians  had  assumed.  How 
long  the  revolt  lasted,  and  whether  it  was  put  down  easily  or  not,  we 
are  not  informed,  our  whole  knowledge  of  the  event  being  derived 
from  a  short  passage  in  Xenophon  ;  but  while  it  iasted  it  must 
have  precluded  all  thoughts  of  attempting  the  reduction  of  Egypt. 
Darius  Nothus  died  soon  after,  b.c.  405,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Artaxerxes  Mnemon.  The  ambition  of  his  brother  Cyrus  led  to 
the  expedition  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks,  which  he  was  prepar- 
ing from  the  time  of  their  father's  death2,  till  the  year  b.c.  401. 
Cyrus  having  perished  in  the  battle  of  Cunaxa,  the  first  care  of 
Artaxerxes  was  to  recover  his  authority  in  Asia  Minor,  which  had 
been  the  government  of  Cyrus  and  had  joined  in  his  revolt.  He 
was  thus  brought  into  hostility  with  Sparta ;  Clearchus,  the  Lace- 
demonian, had  been  the  leader  of  the  Greek  mercenaries  of  Cyrus ; 
the  oppressed  cities  of  Ionia  called  for  protection  on  Sparta,  which, 

1  Xen.  Hell.  1,  2,  ad  fin.  Kai  b  iviavros  e\t)yev  ovros,  iv  w  *ai  Mr?<5ot,  and. 
Aapciov,  tov  TiepaCiv  /JaaiAcwj,  dnoaTavres  ndXiv  Ttpoat^pnoav  airy.      This  was 

b.c.  409.  3  Xen.  Anab.  1,  L 


3.  PsAirvrcTHis 

4.  Nepherttes 


416 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


by  the  issue  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  had  been  placed  in  the 
hegemonia  of  Greece  and  was  protectress  of  its  liberties.  When 
she  prepared,  in  obedience  to  this  call,  to  invade  Asia,  she  made 
an  alliance  with  Nephreus,  king  of  Egypt,  the  Nofreopth  of  the 
monuments1,  and  Nepherites  of  the  lists,  and  he  sent  a  hundred 
triremes  and  large  supplies  of  corn2.  The  ships  which  conveyed  it 
entering  the  port  of  Rhodes,  which  was  in  possession  of  Conon, 
who  commanded  the  Persian  fleet,  were  all  taken.  The  success  of 
Dercyllidas  and  Agesilaus  (399-394  b.c)  fully  occupied  the  Per- 
sian arms  in  Asia  Minor  for  several  years,  and  it  was  not  till  the 
power  of  Athens  revived,  and  a  league  was  formed  in  Greece 
against  Sparta  by  the  influence  of  Persian  gold,  that  Artaxerxes 
could  attend  to  the  re-establishment  of  his  authority  in  other  parts 
of  his  dominions.  The  peace  of  Antalcidas,  concluded  b.c.  387, 
freed  him  from  ail  further  apprehension  on  the  side  of  Greece,  by 
sacrificing  the  liberty  of  the  Asiatic  cities,  and  leaving  the  principal 
states  of  the  mother  country  nearly  balanced  in  power,  and  each 
prepared  to  resist  the  ascendency  of  another. 

His  first  attack,  for  which  he  had  been  collecting  forces  during 
several  years,  was  made  on  Cyprus.  If  held  by  a  hostile  naval 
power,  it  not  only  gave  the  command  of  the  southern  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  of  Syria  and  Phoenicia,  but  even  of  Egypt.  Evagoras  of 
Salamis  had  availed  himself  of  the  weakness  of  Persia,  to  make 
himself  master  of  nearly  the  whole  island3.  In  the  war  which 
resulted,  Evagoras  was  powerfully  aided  by  the  Egyptians.  Ne- 
pherites  was  dead.  We  know  nothing  more  of  the  events  of  his 
reign  than  his  alliance  with  Sparta,  unless  he  is  the  Psammitichus 
of  whom  Diodorus  relates  a  disgraceful  transaction4.    After  the 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  209.  His  name  is  not  found  on  any  building  in 
Egypt,  but  on  a  statue  in  the  Museum  of  Bologna. 

s  Diod.  14,  79.  Justin  calls  the  king  of  Egypt  Hercynio  (6,  2).  Achoris. 
8  Isocr.   Evag.  ed.  Battie,  2,  p.  101.  4  Diod.  14,  35. 


THE  TWESTY-XIXTH  DYNASTY. 


417 


death  of  Cyrus,  the  satraps  of  Asia  Minor,  who  had  favored  his 
cause,  were  alarmed  for  their  own  safety,  and  Tamos,  the  satrap 
of  Ionia,  had  put  his  children  and  property  on  board  ship,  and 
taken  refuge  in  Egypt  with  Psammitichus,  who  basely  seized  the 
fleet  and  the  property,  and  put  Tamos  and  his  children  to  death, 
notwithstanding  the  ancient  relations  of  friendship  between  them. 
The  chronology  of  this  period  is  uncertain,  and  we  cannot  tell 
whether  the  infamy  of  the  act  belongs  to  Amyrtaeus  or  xSepke- 
rites1. 

When  Evagoras  sought  the  succor  of  the  Egyptians,  Achoris 
was  on  the  throne.  Artaxerxes  had  been  long  preparing  his 
attack,  and  had  collected  a  fleet  of  300  triremes  with  a  correspond- 
ing land  force,  while  Evagoras  had  endeavored  to  protect  himself 
by  forming  an  alliance  with  Egypt,  Arabia,  Tyre  and  Caria2. 
Achoris,  besides  furnishing  him  with  supplies  of  corn,  sent  him 
fifty  triremes,  which  were  engaged  in  the  unsuccessful  naval  battle 
fought  by  Evagoras  with  the  Persians  off  Citium,  in  the  year  385 
b.c.  After  this  defeat  he  visited  Egypt,  to  arrange  with  Achoris 
the  means  of  carrying  on  the  war.  Achoris  encouraged  him  to 
persevere,  and  entered  into  a  league  against  Persia  with  the  peo- 
ple of  Barca3 ;  but  the  pecuniary  assistance  which  he  gave  him 
was  less  than  Evagoras  had  expected,  and  he  ultimately  made 
peace  with  Artaxerxes  on  condition  that  he  should  pay  an  annual 
tribute  to  Persia,  but  retain  the  rank  of  a  dependant  king4 ;  and 

1  Diodorus  calls  Psammitichus  a  descendant  of  the  ancient  king  of  that 
name,  which  suits  best  with  Amyrtaeus,  who  was  a  Saite.  As  the  flight  of 
Tamos  took  place  soon  after  the  death  of  Cyrus  (b.c.  401),  it  is  probable 
that  it  fell  within  the  life  of  Amyrtseus,  but  that  Diodorus  has  confounded 
him  with  Psammuthis. 

3  Diod.  15,  2.  Bio/3a!)>)v  is  an  unquestionable  corruption  for  'Apdffwp 
Isocrates  u.  s.  says  he  had  taken  Tyre  by  assault. 

'  Theopompus  ap.  Phot,  clxxvi.,  who  seems  to  make  the  Cyprian  war  end 
under  Nectanebus. 

4  Died.  15,  9.     'YrraKovav  &>s  0a(Ti\evs  (iaoiktl  TrpoaraTTUpTi, 

18* 


418 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


thus  the  Cyprian  war  ended,  after  eight  years  spent  in  preparation 
and  two  in  actual  hostility1.  Egypt,  however,  found  an  unex- 
pected ally.  Gaos,  the  son  of  Tamos,  commanded  the  Persian  fleet, 
and  dreaded  the  displeasure  of  Artaxerxes,  by  whom  his  father-in- 
law  Teribazus  had  been  imprisoned.  Availing  himself  of  his  popu- 
larity with  the  fleet,  he  induced  the  commanders  of  the  triremes 
to  revolt,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Achoris.  Sparta  joined 
the  league.  She  had  brought  ignominy  on  herself  by  sacrificing 
the  Asiatic  Greeks  to  Persia  in  the  peace  of  Antalcidas,  and  was 
desirous  of  recovering  her  ascendancy  and  her  reputation  by  a  new 
war2.  The  death  of  Gaos  by  treachery,  in  the  year  3833,  prevented 
any  hostile  operations  against  Persia.  Tachos  succeeded  to  him, 
and  fortified  himself  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  between  Smyrna 
and  Phocaea,  but  dying  soon  after  the  league  fell  to  pieces.  Sparta, 
by  a  change  of  policy,  began  to  court  the  aid  of  Persia,  in  order 
to  make  herself  sovereign  of  Greece4,  and  seized  the  citadel  of 
Thebes  381  b.c.  During  these  events,  Egypt  was  unmolested  by 
the  Persians,  but  towards  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Achoris,  very 
formidable  preparations  were  made  by  Pharnabazus  for  its  invasion. 
To  repel  them  Achoris  collected  a  large  body  of  Greek  mercenaries, 
twelve  or  twenty  thousand  ;  and  as  he  had  no  general  capable  of 
commanding  them,  he  invited  Chabrias  the  Athenian.  Chabrias 
undertook  the  command,  if  Diodorus  be  correct,  without  the  appro- 
bation of  the  people,  and  was  recalled  on  the  remonstrances  of  the 
satrap,  who  regarded  it  as  a  violation  of  the  peace  existing  between 
Persia  and  Egypt5.  He  appears,  however,  to  have  remained  long 
enough  in  Egypt  to  assist  Nectanebus  in  establishing  his  power, 

1  Isocr.  Eva<r.  p.  102,  ed.  Battle.  Isocrates  places  this  peace  six  years 
after  the  naval  defeat.  See  the  chronology  discussed  by  Mr.  Fynes  Clinton, 
F.  H.  vol.  2,  p.  278. 

3  Diod.  15,  9.  8  Diod.  15,  18. 

4  Diod.  15,  19.  6  Diod.  15,  29.    Corn.  Nep.  Chabrias,  3L 


THE  THIRTIETH  BFNASTY. 


419 


on  the  extinction  of  the  Saitic  dynasty1,  and  rapidly  trained  the 
Egyptians  into  accomplished  seamen2. 

Memorials  of  Achoris  are  found  in  several  places,  as  at  Medinet- 
Aboo  on  a  restoration  of  a  building  erected  by  Thothmes  IV.,  and 
probably  destroyed  by  Cambyses,  and  among  the  ruins  of  Karnak. 
The  quarries  of  Mokattam  also  contain  his  shield ;  and  there  is  a 
sphinx  in  the  Museum  of  Paris,  on  the  base  of  which  his  name  is 
found  hieroglyphically  written,  with  the  addition,  "beloved  of 
Kneph3." 

Of  the  short  reign  of  Psammuthis  there  is  no  record  in  history, 
but  his  shield  has  been  found  at  Karnak4 ;  Nepherites  is  equally 
unknown  in  history  and  in  the  monuments.  The  Muthis  of  Euse- 
bius  appears  to  have  originated  from  a  repetition  of  the  last  syllable 
of  Psammuthis,  whom  he  follows  in  the  Armenian,  reigning  like 
Psammuthis  one  year. 


Thirtieth  Dynasty.    Three  Sebennytic  kings. 

Years. 

1.  Nectaxebes,  reigned  18       10  (Euseb.) 

2.  Teos  2  2 

3.  Nectanebus  18  8 

38  20 

The  accession  of  Nectanebes,  or  Nectanebus,  the  first  king  of 
the  Sebennytic  dynasty,  falls  probably  in  the  year  b.  c.  380.  He 
was  immediately  called  upon  to  defend  his  kingdom  against  the 
invasion  which  Pharnabazus  was  preparing  when  Achoris  died. 

1  Corn.  Nep.  Chabrias,  2.  "  Chabrias  multa  in  Europa  bella  administra- 
vit  quum  dux  Atheniensium  esset;  in  JEgypto  sua  sponte  gessit  Nam 
Nectanabin  adjutum  profeetus  regnum  ei  constituit." 

3  Polysenus,  3,  2,  7. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  213.    Charopollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  384. 

*  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  214. 


420 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


The  Athenians  had  not  only  recalled  Chabrias,  in  obedience  to  the 
demands  of  Persia,  but  had  sent  Iphicrates  to  lead  the  Greek 
mercenaries  in  the  Persian  service1.  The  movements  of  the  satrap 
w  ere  slow,  for  all  his  measures  were  subject  to  the  control  of  the 
king,  and  awaited  his  sanction  for  their  execution.  At  length, 
however,  the  fleet  and  army  mustered  at  Acre,  the  nearest  harbor 
on  the  Syrian  coast  where  such  a  fleet  could  lie2.  The  land-forces 
consisted  of  200,000  barbarians  and  20,000  Greeks3 ;  the  fleet  of 
300  triremes,  200  triacontors  (galleys  of  thirty  oars  each),  and  a 
great  number  of  corn  ships.  They  began  their  march  at  the  open- 
ing of  summer,  b.  c.  373,  the  fleet  accompanying  the  army.  Necta- 
nebes  had  improved  the  time  which  the  long  delay  of  Pharnabazus 
had  given  him.  Every  navigable  branch  of  the  Nile  was  fortified 
by  two  towers,  joined  by  a  boom  which  prevented  the  entrance  of 
a  fleet.  Pelusium,  the  key  of  Egypt,  had  been  strengthened  with 
peculiar  care ;  the  roads  had  been  laid  under  water,  the  navigable 
channels  made  dry  by  embankments,  and  every  weak  point  protected 
by  fortifications.  Pharnabazus  and  Iphicrates  found  that  they  had 
no  chance  of  capturing  Pelusium,  and  sailed  away  to  the  Mende- 
sian  mouth.  Landing  here  with  3000  men,  they  attacked  the  fort 
by  which  the  entrance  was  protected;  the  garrison,  of  about  equal 
numbers,  marched  out  to  give  them  battle,  and  being  defeated,  the 
Persians  entered  the  fort  along  with  the  flying  Egyptians.  Dis- 
sensions arose  between  the  generals,  which  prevented  any  results 
of  this  first  success.  Iphicrates,  who  had  heard  from  the  prisoners 
that  the  troops  had  all  been  withdrawn  from  Memphis,  would  have 

1  Corn.  Nep.  Iphicrates,  2. 

a  IlroAe/JuTj,  rjv  vAk»7«/  aM>6fia£ov  npSrepov'  77  i^pcovro  opfir)7Y)pUp  irpdi  ttiv  AiyVJrrov  ol 

Jlipaai.  (Strabo,  16,  758.)  It  was  while  the  armament  was  mustering  hero 
that  the  defection  of  Datames  from  the  Persians  took  place.  (Corn.  Hep. 
Dat  5.) 

8 1  give  these  numbers  on  the  authority  of  Diodorus;  they  seem  exagge- 
rated. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


421 


sailed  thither  before  they  could  return.  Pharnabazus  thought  this 
too  hazardous,  and  wished  to  wait  till  the  whole  Persian  army 
came  up.  Iphicrates  then  proposed  to  undertake  the  adventure 
with  his  own  mercenary  troops  alone.  This  also  Pharnabazus 
refused,  fearing,  it  is  said,  that  Iphicrates  designed  to  conquer 
Egypt  for  himself,  but  as  is  more  likely,  because  he  did  not  choose, 
on  his  own  responsibility,  to  attempt  a  movement,  which  could  be 
justified  only  by  an  improbable  success.  Meanwhile  the  Egyptians 
rallied  their  forces,  garrisoned  Memphis,  and  attacked  the  fortress 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mendesian  branch,  which  the  Persians  had 
seized.  They  had  the  advantage  in  all  the  encounters  which  took 
place ;  as  the  summer  advanced  the  waters  of  the  Xile  began  to 
rise,  and  their  efflux  being  retarded  by  the  strength  of  the  Etesian 
winds,  the  whole  country  was  covered  with  the  inundation.  The 
Athenian  and  Persian  generals  had  committed  the  same  error, 
which  led  to  the  destruction  of  St.  Louis  and  his  army,  in  1249,  and 
which  Bonaparte  avoided  in  his  campaign  of  17981,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  return  into  Syria.  Their  discomfiture  produced  a  quarrel 
between  Pharnabazus  and  Iphicrates,  who,  fearing  the  fate  of 
Conon,  soon  after  secretly  embarked  for  Athens.  Pharnabazus 
sent  an  embassy  thither,  and  accused  him  to  the  people  of  being 
the  cause  of  the  ill-success  of  the  Egyptian  expedition  ;  they  replied, 
that  if  they  found  him  guilty  they  would  punish  him ;  and  soon 
1  "  Les  Chretiens  etaient  entres  dans  Damietta,  le  7  Juin;  c'est  l'epoque 
des  plus  basses  eaux ;  le  2s  il  ne  commence  a  croitre  que  quinze  jours  plus 
tard,  au  solstice  d'ete ;  et  il  s'Sleve  lentement  jusqu'a  l'equinoxe,  ou  Ton 
coupe  ses  digues.  Un  grand  maitre  dans  l'art  de  la  guerre,  comparant  son 
expedition  a  celle  de  Saint  Louis,  nous  fait  sentir  tout  le  prix  du  temps 
perdu  par  les  croises.  'Si  le  8  Juin  1249,'  dit  Xapoleon,  'Saint  Louis  eut 
manoeuvre  comme  ODt  fait  les  Francais  en  1798,  il  serait  arrive  le  26  Juinau 
Caire ;  il  aurait  conquis  la  Basse-Egypte  dans  le  mois  de  son  arrivee.  II 
aurait  attendu  ensuite  dans  l'abondance  d'une  capitale,  le  debordement, 
puis  la  retraite,  des  eaux.' "  (Sismondi,  Hist,  des  Francais,  5,  149,  ed.  de 
Bruxelles.) 


422 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


after  gave  him  the  command  of  their  whole  fleet1.  We  find  him 
in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  b.  c.  373,  commanding  in  the 
waters  of  Corcyra2. 

If  even  with  the  aid  of  Grecian  mercenaries,  Persia  could  not 
succeed  in  reducing  Egypt,  there  was  little  likelihood  that  its  own 
resources  should  avail  for  this  purpose.  The  state  of  Greece  pre- 
cluded the  hope  of  obtaining  aid  from  thence.  Sparta  was  en- 
gaged from  371  b.c.  to  the  battle  of  Man  tinea,  362  b.c,  in  a 
deadly  warfare  with  Thebes,  while  Artaxerxes  vainly  endeavored 
to  reconcile  them3,  that  he  might  employ  the  Greek  forces  in  his 
own  service.  Athens,  though  not  directly  embroiled  in  the  con- 
flict between  Sparta  and  Thebes,  sat  by,  watching  its  events,  and 
flinging  its  weight  alternately  into  the  lighter  scale.  Egypt  there- 
fore enjoyed  peace  during  the  remainder  of  the  life  of  Nectanebes. 
His  name,  spelt  JVacht  ef  neb*,  occurs  at  Philse  on  a  temple  dedi- 
cated to  Athor,  and  on  the  rocks  of  the  island  of  Beghe ;  at  Cop- 
tos,  in  a  church  built  out  of  the  fragments  of  an  old  Egyptian 
edifice  ;  and  at  Medinet  Aboo  in  a  small  building  of  elegant  work- 
manship, in  which  he  is  represented  offering  to  Amun  Re  and  the 
other  gods  of  Thebes5.  According  to  Pliny  he  cut  out  an  obelisk 
from  the  quarry,  which  Ptolemy  Philadelphia  afterwards  floated 
down  the  Nile,  and  erected  in  honor  of  his  sister  in  the  Arsino'te 
nome\    Its  excavation  probably  took  place  towards  the  end  of  the 

1  Diod.  15,  43.  2  Clinton,  F.  H.  sub  anno. 

3  Diod.  15,  70.    Xen.  Hist.  7,  1,  33,  seq. 

4  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  p.  220. 

5  "Wilkinson,  Manners  and  Customs,  1,  209,  quotes  a  Greek  papyrus  in 
the  possession  of  Signor  Anastasy,  which  describes  Nectanebus  as  restoring 
the  temple  of  Mars  at  Sebennvtua  with  great  splendor,  in  obedience  to  a 
dream. 

6  He  calls  the  king  Necthhebis  (36,  8),  and  according  to  the  common 
reading  (36,  13),  makes  him  to  have  lived  500  years  before  Alexander  the 
Great    The  Bamberg  MS.  reads — "  Xeohthebis  regis  D  ante  Alexandrum 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


423 


reign  of  Nectanebes,  as  it  remained  without  an  inscription.  The 
celebrated  Lions  of  the  Fontana  di  Termini  at  Rome,  now  placed 
in  the  Museum  of  Egyptian  antiquities  in  the  Vatican,  show  that 
the  art  of  sculpture,  in  the  execution  of  animals,  had  declined  but 
little  ;  they  are  the  last  specimen  of  Egyptian  sculpture  executed 
under  native  princes1. 

Eusebius  has  shortened  the  duration  of  the  Sebennytic  dynasty 
from  thirty-eight  years  to  twenty,  and  the  reign  of  Xectanebes 
from  eighteen  to  ten.  That  the  Greek  text  of  Manetho  is  correct 
is  in  part  proved  by  a  stele  preserved  at  Rome,  on  which  his  thir- 
teenth year  is  mentioned2. 

Teos  (361  b.c),  the  successor  of  Nectanebes  according  to  Ma- 
netho, is  evidently  the  Tachos  of  the  Greek  historians.  In  what 
relation  he  stood  to  his  predecessor  we  are  not  informed,  probably 
that  of  son.  The  empire  of  Artaxerxes  was  at  this  time  surround- 
ed with  enemies3.  The  maritime  provinces  of  Asia  had  before 
revolted,  and  the  generals  and  satraps,  Ariobarzanes  of  Phrygia, 
Mausolus  of  Caria,  Orontes  of  Mysia,  were  preparing  to  march 
against  the  Great  King.  The  Syrians  and  Phoenicians,  and  the 
adjacent  litoral  states  of  Cilicia,  Pisidia  and  Lycia,  had  joined  the 
league.  The  Spartans  were  hostile  to  him,  because  he  had  de- 
manded that  the  Messenians  should  be  included  in  the  terms  of 
the  peace  made  in  3G1  after  the  battle  of  Mantinea4.  The  nuances 
of  Persia  were  disordered  by  the  loss  of  revenue  arising  from  so 

Magnum;"  and  Bunsen  supposes  that  Pliny  wrote  "regis  A,"  i.  e.  fourth 
king,  copying  some  Greek  author.    (Urkundenbueh,  p.  84,  89.  Germ.) 

1  Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.  2,  222. 

8  Champollion-Figeac,  L'Univers,  p.  885. 

3  Dk>d.  15,  90.  'Ytto  tqv  airov  kuioov  tbti  Trpog  rt  rov  t^s  Alyv-rov  0aai\ta 
ito\cptiv  K<ii  ~pos  rat  Kara  ri>  'A.~tav  'EA>r;  Mas  ttoXii;  koi  AaKeSatfioviovs  *ai  tovs 
Toirtiiv  Zvpii&xovg  aarpa-as  koli  arparriyovSf  tovs  ap%ovras  piv  tuv  napa6a\aooi<av 
t6it(x)v)  avvredeifitvovs  ci  Kowonpayiav 

*  Diod.  15,  89.    Xen.  Ages.  2,  28. 


424 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


many  revolts,  and  the  necessity  of  great  armaments  to  suppress 
them.  These  circumstances  appear  to  have  emboldened  Tachos 
no  longer  to  act  on  the  defensive,  but  to  attack  Persia.  Rheomi- 
thres  was  sent  to  him  on  the  part  of  Orontes  and  the  other  revolted 
satraps,  and  received  from  him  500  talents  of  silver  and  fifty  ships 
of  war.  With  these  he  sailed  to  Leuce  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor, 
but  on  his  arrival  seized  the  rebel  chiefs  and  sent  them  bound  to 
Artaxerxes,  making  his  own  peace  by  giving  up  to  the  king  the 
money  with  which  he  had  been  furnished  to  carry  on  war  against 
him1.  Tachos  raised  a  fleet  of  200  sail,  with  an  army  of  80,000 
Egyptians  and  10,000  Greek  mercenaries.  The  Greek  troops  he 
placed  under  the  command  of  Agesilaus,  who  at  the  age  of  eighty, 
and  with  a  body  maimed  and  scarred  by  war,  undertook  this 
office,  through  restlessness  and  love  of  gain2.  If  we  may  believe 
Xenophon,  Tachos  had  promised  him  the  supreme  command  ;  on 
his  arrival  with  a  thousand  Spartan  hoplites,  he  found  that  only 
the  subordinate  command  of  the  Greek  mercenaries  was  destined 
for  him,  Chabrias  the  Athenian  commanding  the  fleet,  and  the 
king  himself  being  supreme3.  This  first  gave  him  offence,  and  a 
difference  of  opinion  soon  arose  between  him  and  Tachos  respect- 
\  ing  the  conduct  of  the  war.  Agesilaus  advised  that  Tachos  should 
remain  in  Egypt,  and  commit  active  operations  to  his  generals — 
advice  that  we  cannot  wonder  Tachos  should  have  declined,  since 

1  Diod.  15,  92.  3  Plut.  Agesilaus,  36. 

3  Diodorus  says,  that  Chabrias  took  the  command  of  the  fleet  without 

authority  from  Athens.  TuO  Si  vovtikov  r>  arparriyiav  Ei,£^Eipt(TE  Xa/?pta  tw 
'A0i7vui'w,  Srifiocria  /xiv  v  n  d  rfjs  tt  a  r  p  1 6  o  s  ovk  d  tt  £  a  r  a  A  fi  ev  a>}  iSia  6i 
vtto  tov  /3a(Ti\ia}s  avarparcvuv  ireireionLvM  (15,  92).  This  so  closely  resembles 
15,  29,  where,  speaking  of  Achoris,  Diodorus  says,  Ovk  k'xtov  a-parriydv 
d£i6%pewv  pcrsTTtifJj'aTo  Xu/?pj'af  tov  A.0r)vaiov'  ovtos  avtv  r  fj  s  tov  Sfifinv 
y  /  co  ft  t]  i   irpocrSe^d^evog    ri)v    arparriyiav   dd>r)yeiTO    tlov    kit  Aiyvirrov 

Jwd/itwi/,  that  he  has  probably  repeated  himself.  It  is  not  likely  that  Cha- 
biias  should  twice  have  gone  to  Egypt  unauthorized.  It  is  certain  that  he 
was  here  now,  without  a  commission  from  the  state.    See  Plut.  Ages.  37. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


425 


two  of-these  generals  were  foreigners,  of  a  nation  notoriously  ready- 
to  embrace  the  side  which  policy  or  profit  recommended.  He 
placed  Nectanebus,  his  brother  or  brother-in-law1,  at  the  head  of 
the  Egyptian  land-forces,  and  advanced  into  Phoenicia.  The  mea- 
sures which  he  had  adopted  to  raise  money  for  this  expedition  on 
the  recommendation  of  Chabrias  had  been  very  unpopular.  The 
Athenian  general  had  represented  to  him  how  much  money  that 
might  be  usefully  employed  for  the  service  of  the  state  was  expend- 
ed on  religious  rites,  and  recommended  the  abolition  of  many  of 
the  priesthoods.  The  priests,  unwilling  to  renounce  their  offices, 
gave  up  their  private  property  to  the  king.  But  when  they  had 
made  this  sacrifice,  he  ordered  them  to  expend  in  future  only  a 
tenth  part  of  what  they  had  been  accustomed  to  lay  out  on  reli- 
gious rites,  and  to  make  a  loan  of  the  rest  to  him,  till  the  expira- 
tion of  the  war  with  Persia.  P>esides  this,  Chabrias  advised  him 
to  impose  a  house-tax  and  a  poll-tax,  a  duty  of  an  obolus  on  the 
sale  of  every  artaba  (nine  gallons)  of  corn,  and  a  tax  of  a  tenth 
of  the  profits  of  navigation,  manufactures,  and  every  kind  of  occu- 
pation. All  the  gold  and  silver  bullion  was  to  be  brought  to  the 
king,  who  gave  an  assignment  on  the  nomarchs  for  its  repayment 
from  the  taxes2.  These  devices  of  the  Athenian  financier  must 
have  been  very  distasteful  to  the  Egyptians,  who  appear  hitherto 
to  have  been  lightly  taxed3.  A  people  enthusiastic  in  the  defence 
of  their  religion  and  their  liberties  have  submitted  cheerfully  to 
much  greater  sacrifices,  but  the  Egyptians  were  not  threatened  by 
any  imminent  danger,  and  might  reasonably  regard  Tachos  as 
engaged  in  a  war  of  ambition  rather  than  of  self-defence.  The 

1  The  Nectanebus  who  revolted  was  nephew  to  Tachos.  (Pint.  Ages. 
87.) 

8  Aristotelis  (sive  Anonymi)  Ouovo/m-a.  c.  23,  ed.  Goettling,  where  many 
singular  expedients,  on  the  part  of  states  and  financiers  for  raising  money, 
are  collected. 

9  See  p.  29  of  this  vol. 


426 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


general  who  had  been  left  in  command  of  Egypt  during  his  ab- 
sence, though  so  nearly  related  to  him1,  perceiving  the  discontent 
of  the'  people,  sent  a  message  to  his  son  Nectanebus,  exhorting 
him  to  claim  the  crown.  Nectanebus  had  been  detached  with 
some  Egyptian  troops  to  besiege  the  strong  places  of  Syria,  and 
adopting  the  suggestion  of  his  father2,  induced  the  generals  by 
gifts  and  the  soldiers  by  promises  to  espouse  his  cause.  He 
endeavored  to  persuade  Agesilaus  and  Chabrias  to  employ  their 
forces  also  for  the  establishment  of  his  power.  Chabrias  was 
desirous  of  supporting  Tachos  ;  Agesilaus  had  been  mortified  and 
offended  by  him,  and  as  the  Egyptians  generally  had  declared  for 
Nectanebus,  refused  to  fight  against  those  whom  he  had  been  sent 
to  aid3.  He  dispatched  messengers  to  Sparta,  instructed  to  make 
representations  favorable  to  Nectanebus ;  the  rivals  also  sent  each 
his  ambassador.  The  Spartans,  after  deliberation,  left  it  to  Agesi- 
laus to  act  as  he  thought  most  advantageous  for  his  country.  He 
carried  over  not  only  the  Spartans,  but  all  the  mercenaries  to  the 
side  of  Nectanebus,  and  the  Athenians,  at  the  instigation  of 
Persia,  recalled  Chabrias4.  Tachos,  thus  abandoned  by  his  troops, 
native  and  foreign,  first  retired  to  Sid  on5,  and  then  crossing  the 
Desert,  which  extends  on  both  sides  of  the  Euphrates6,  came  to  the 
king  at  Babylon  or  Susa  by  whom  he  was  favorably  received,  and 
according  to  Diodorus,  entrusted  with  the  command  of  an  expedi- 
tion against  Egypt 

This  expedition  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  did  not  live  to  carry  into 
execution.    He  died  in  the  year  b.  c.  359,  and  was  succeeded  by 

1  See  note  1,  p.  425.  2  Diod.  15,  92.  9  Plut,  Agesil.  37. 

4  I  refer  to  this  period  what  Diodorus  (15,  29)  relates  of  the  reign  of 
Achoi'is.    See  notes,  p.  419  and  424. 
6  Xenoph.  Ages.  2,  30. 

6  Diod.  15,  92.     'O  T*^WS  K(iran\ay£\    iroXpi^ire  Sia  rrjs  Apa0ias  dva,8rji/ai  -rrpds 

dv  0aai\ea.  This  is  the  Arahia  of  Xenophon's  Anabasis  (1,  5),  lying  south 
of  the  Araxes. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


427 


his  son  Darius  Ochus,  sometimes  also  known  by  the  name  of  Arta- 
xerxes.  He  was  at  once  cruel  and  unwarlike1 ;  he  had  secured 
his  own  succession  by  murders  surpassing  the  ordinary  measure 
of  oriental  barbarity ;  the  kingdom  was  distracted  by  the  revolt 
of  the  satraps  which  we  have  already  mentioned.  He  suspended 
therefore  all  operations  against  Egypt ;  Tachos  was  retained  at  the 
Persian  court,  and  soon  ended  his  days  there,  a  victim  to  indul- 
gence in  its  luxuries,  so  different  from  the  simple  habits  of  the 
Egyptians2.  But  though  delivered  for  the  present  from  a  foreign 
invasion,  Egypt  was  divided  by  a  civil  war.  A  native  of  Mendes, 
whose  name  has  not  been  preserved,  had  risen  up  in  opposition  to 
Nectanebus,  had  been  proclaimed  king,  and  raised  a  large  army, 
composed,  like  that  which  Sethos  led  against  Sennacherib,  not  of 
hereditary  soldiery,  but  of  the  unwarlike  population3.  The  inha- 
bitants of  a  country  like  Egypt,  however,  covered  with  trenches 
and  embankments,  soon  grow  dexterous  in  the  use  of  the  spade  for 
fortification.  Agesilaus,  who  was  now  in  the  service  of  Nectane- 
bus, became  suspected  by  him,  in  consequence  of  a  message  from 
the  Mendesian,  tempting  his  fidelity,  and  though  urged  by  Agesi- 
laus to  attack  the  enemy  forthwith,  Nectanebus  left  the  open 
country  and  took  possession  of  a  large  town,  where,  as  Agesilaus 
foresaw,  the  numbers  of  the  enemy  and  their  familiarity  with  the 
art  of  entrenchment  would  enable  them  to  hem  him  in4.  This 
they  had  nearly  accomplished,  and  supplies  began  to  fail.  Nec- 

1  Diod.  16,  40. 

3  .Mian,  V.  Hist.  5,  1.  Diodorus  makes  him  return  to  Egypt  and  recover 
his  throne  by  the  aid  of  Agesilaus  (15,  93),  but  the  best  authorities  are 
against  him.    See  Wesseling  ad  loe. 

8  M-iyaSes  Kal  Qavavaoi  Kal  Si  dneipiav  evKara<pp6vi]T0i.  (Plut.  Ages,'  38.)  These 
were  the  class  especially  aggrieved  by  £he  new  system  of  taxation. 

*  KcXewoi/T'S  airov  Siajia-^taBai  ri]v  Ta-^iar^v,  xai  jxf)  ^p5vu>  iroXenuv  npog 
dvdpwnovs  airupovs  dycjyoy,  7roAt)^E(fna  Si  nepteXOeiv  /cat  nepiracppevaai  Svvaficvovs,  drr«- 
y&pr\Qtv  eis  ttoXiv  cvepicfj  Kal  [ityav  e%oV(rav  nepiffoXov.     (Plut.  Ages.  38.) 


428 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


tanebus  was  now  eager  to  march  out  and  give  battle,  and  the 
Greeks  joined  with  him  in  demanding  it.  But  Agesilaus  saw  that 
the  trench  which  the  besiegers  had  drawn  around  the  town,  with 
the  exception  of  a  single  point,  would  prevent  their  own  forces 
from  being  concentrated.  At  nightfall  therefore  he  persuaded 
Nectanebus  to  join  him  in  an  united  and  rapid  attack  on  the  part 
which  remained  open,  and  they  forced  their  way  through,  routing 
the  troops  opposed  to  them,  before  the  others  could  assemble  to 
support  them.  Soon  after  he  gained  a  decisive  victory  by  supe- 
riority of  tactics.  Being  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  Egyptians, 
he  took  post  where  both  his  flanks  were  covered  by  a  canal,  and 
thus  avoiding  the  danger  of  being  surrounded,  he  easily  defeated 
those  who  attacked  him  in  front,  and  routed  them  with  great 
slaughter.    Nectanebus  II.  was  thus  secured  on  the  throne. 

Agesilaus  immediately  set  sail  on  his  return  to  Sparta.  As  it 
was  already  mid-winter,  he  coasted  along  Libya,  not  venturing  to 
stand  straight  across  the  Carpathian  sea,  and  had  reached  the  port 
of  Menelaus,  opposite  to  Crete,  on  his  way  to  Cyrene,  where  he 
died  in  his  84th  year1.  With  the  departure  of  the  Greeks,  in  the 
end2  of  the  year  359  B.C.,  our  knowledge  of  the  internal  state  of 
Egypt,  during  the  reign  of  Nectanebus,  ceases,  till  350  B.C.,  when 
Persia  resumed  and  carried  into  effect  the  project  of  reconquest. 
It  is  probable  that  hostilities  never  entirely  ceased  between  the 
kingdoms.  Ochus  made  more  than  one  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
enter  Egypt3,  and  was  defeated  by  the  skill  of  Lamius  of  Sparta 
and  Diophantus  of  Athens,  whom  Nectanebus  placed  at  the  head 
of  his  forces4. 

1  Plut.  Ages.  40. 

3  Mecrov  xeifiMvoi  oVrof  dnon'Xu  aixaSe  (Xenoph.  Ages.  2,  31.) 

3  ' A.iroGTt\\(i)v  6vi>ajjt£is  Kai  (TTpaTrjyovs,  KoXXaxiS  uTTCTvy^ave.     (Diod.  16,  40.) 

The  language  of  Isocrates,  1,  p.  280,  ed.  Battie,  may  seem  to  imply  that 
Ochus  had  commanded  in  person. 

4  Diod.  16,  48. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


429 


Ochus  was  an  indolent  and  un warlike  prince,  but  the  ridicule 
with  which  he  had  been  covered  by  the  defeat  of  his  attacks  on 
Egypt,  roused  him  at  last  to  make  a  great  effort.  Xot  only  had 
his  name  become  a  by-word  among  the  Egyptians  for  heaviness 
and  sloth1,  but  the  dependent  rulers  of  Cyprus  and  Phcenice  were 
encouraged  to  follow  the  example  of  Egypt2.  The  Persian  empire 
was  evidently  in  danger  of  dissolution,  but  the  vigorous  exertions 
to  which  Ochus  was  stimulated  preserved  it  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. He  began  by  reducing  Cyprus  and  Phoenicia.  Sidon,  the 
most  nourishing  of  the  Phoenician  cities,  had  made  great  pre- 
parations for  defence,  but  it  was  surrendered  by  the  treachery 
of  its  king  Tennes,  and  the  inhabitants,  having  first  destroyed 
their  fleet,  burnt  themselves,  their  wives,  and  children,  and  slaves3. 
Cyprus  was  also  subdued4.  The  states  of  Greece  were  invited  to 
furnish  mercenaries ;  Athens  and  Sparta  promised  neutrality,  but 
declined  co-operation  ;  the  Thebans,  Argives  and  Asiatic  Greeks 
sent  together  10,000  men,  and  Ochus,  after  the  destruction  of 
Sidon,  advanced  by  the  same  route  as  Cambyses  to  the  desert 
which  separates  Egypt  from  Palestine5.  In  passing  the  Serbonian 
Lake,  part  of  his  army  were  lost  in  the  quicksands  called  Barathra 
which  border  the  coast6.  Had  Tennes,  the  king  of  Sidon,  been 
alive,  he  might  have  saved  the  Persians  from  this  disaster,  for  he 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  approaches  to  Egypt  and  the  proper 
points  for  making  a  descent7.    Nectanebus  had  not  neglected  the 

1  ",£l%ov  ol  Kiyvirrioi  rrj  eiTt^copicp  fcovrj  rOvov  tK.iXovv,  to  vwOU  olvtov  t?jj  yvwftns 

SiafiaXXovTti.    (JElian,  V.  EL  4,  8.)    The  Coptic  for  ass  is  Eio. 

2  Diod.  16,  40.  3  Diod.  16,  45.  4  Diod.  16,  46. 

6  It  appears  to  me  that  the  account  quoted  by  Longinus  from  Theopom- 
pus  (p.  378  of  this  voL),  describes  the  expedition  of  Ochus. 

6  This  is  probably  the  event,  which  Diodorus  (1,  30)  has  exaggerated  into 
the  swallowing  up  of  whole  armies.  Comp.  Par.  Lost,  2,  593,  ..."  the 
Serbonian  bog,  Where  armies  whole  have  sunk." 

7  Diod.  16,  43. 


430 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


means  of  defence.  He  had  under  arms  60,000  of  the  Hermoty- 
bians  aud  Calasirians,  20,000  Libyans,  and  an  equal  number  of 
Greek  mercenaries.  In  sea-going  ships  he  was  far  inferior  to  the 
Persians,  who  had  the  command  of  the  Cyprian  and  Phoenician 
navies,  but  he  had  a  large  fleet  of  boats  adapted  for  fighting  on 
the  branches  of  the  Nile;  and  he  had  rendered  the  frontier 
towards  Arabia  nearly  impregnable,  by  a  continuous  chain  of 
entrenchments  and  fortifications.  Pelusium  was  garrisoned  by 
5000  Greeks,  under  the  command  of  Philopbron.  The  Thebans 
in  the  Persian  army,  eager  to  maintain  the  glory  which  they  had 
acquired  at  Leuctra  and  Mantinea,  advanced  alone  and  rashly, 
across  a  deep  canal  to  attack  Pelusium.  The  garrison  sallied  out 
and  a  fierce  conflict  ensued,  which  lasted  till  night.  Next  day  the 
whole  body  of  Greek  mercenaries  were  brought  up  in  three  divi- 
sions, each  under  the  joint  command  of  a  Greek  and  a  Persian. 
Lacrates,  who  commanded  the  Thebans,  cut  the  banks  of  the  canal, 
letting  off  the  water,  and  having  filled  it  up  with  earth,  planted 
his  military  engines  on  the  embankment.  These  soon  made 
breaches  in  the  walls ;  but  the  besieged  rapidly  raised  new  walls 
behind,  and  erected  wooden  towers  upon  them.  Ochus  might  have 
returned  again  discomfited,  but  in  the  meantime  a  great  calamity 
had  befallen  Nectanebus.  It  was  evidently  his  policy  to  avoid  a 
pitched  battle  and  let  the  enemy  exhaust  their  strength,  in  endea- 
voring to  reduce  the  number  of  strong  positions  which  he  occu- 
pied ;  but  the  eagerness  of  his  Greek  auxiliaries  to  fight  prevented 
his  carrying  this  plan  into  execution,  and  he  was  outmanoeuvred 
by  the  enemy.  With  30,000  Egyptians,  5000  Greeks,  and  half 
the  Libyan  auxiliaries,  he  was  guarding  an  important  passage. 
Nicostratus,  the  commander  of  the  Argives  who  were  before  Pelu- 
sium, was  guided  by  some  Egyptians  whose  wives  and  children 
were  in  the  power  of  the  Persians  as  hostages,  to  an  obscure 
branch  of  the  river,  by  which  he  brought  up  his  fleet  and  secretly 
fortified  himself  on  the  Egyptian  side.    When  he  was  discovered, 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


431 


the  garrison  of  a  neighboring  fortress,  Greek  mercenaries  to  the 
number  of  5000,  under  the  command  of  Cleinias  of  Cos,  marched 
out  against  them,  and  a  pitched  battle  ensued,  in  which  the  troops 
of  Nectanebus  were  nearly  all  cut  to  pieces.  He  was  alarmed,  and 
apprehending  that  the  rest  of  the  Persian  forces  might  cross  the 
river  and  cut  off  his  retreat  on  Memphis,  marched  thither  with  all 
his  army.  Diodorus  severely  censures  him,  and  alleges  that  he 
was  ruined  by  the  over-confidence  arising  from  previous  success — 
success  of  which  the  merit  belonged  not  to  him,  but  to  Diophan- 
tus  and  Lamius.  His  own  narrative,  however,  justifies  no  other 
censure  on  Xectanebus,  than  perhaps  a  want  of  vigilance  in  allow- 
ing Nicostratus  to  fortify  a  position  in  his  rear.  When  that  posi- 
tion was  made  good  by  a  victory,  nothing  appears  to  have  been 
left  for  Xectanebus  but  to  retire  on  Memphis,  before  he  was  inter- 
cepted. The  garrison  of  Pelusium  perceived  that  any  further 
resistance  was  vain,  and  surrendered  to  Lacrates  on  condition  that 
they  should  be  transported  to  Greece  with  their  property 
untouched.  This  condition  was  violated  by  the  Persian  troops, 
who  endeavored  to  plunder  the  Greeks  as  they  marched  out. 
Lacrates,  indignant  at  this  breach  of  his  pledged  word,  attacked 
the  Persians  and  killed  some  of  them.  Bagoas,  their  commander, 
complained  to  Ochus,  but  he  justified  the  Greeks,  and  ordered  the 
Persians  who  had  broken  the  truce  to  be  put  to  death.  Mentor, 
the  commander  of  another  division  of  the  Persian  army,  soon 
reduced  Bubastis  and  the  other  cities  of  Lower  Egypt.  They  were 
all  occupied  by  mixed  garrisons  of  Greeks  and  Egyptians,  and  as 
he  caused  the  rumor  to  be  spread  that  those  who  surrendered 
should  be  treated  with  kindness,  while  a  more  terrible  fate  than 
that  of  Sidon  awaited  all  who  made  resistance,  they  were  eager  to 
anticipate  each  other  in  submission.  Nectanebus  found  that  he 
could  not  maintain  himself  at  Memphis,  and  fled  into  Ethiopia, 
having  reigned  between  eight  and  nine  years.    His  flight  closed 


432 


HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


the  Thirty  Dynasties  of  the  Pharaohs — a  succession  unexampled 
in  ancient  or  modern  times1. 

Ochus  took  possession  of  all  Egypt,  razed  the  walls  of  the  prin- 
cipal towns,  and  plundered  the  temples.  It  is  said  that  he  imi- 
tated the  outrages  of  Cambyses,  killed  Apis  and  gave  his  flesh  to 
the  cooks,  and  commanded  an  ass  to  receive  the  honors  due  to  the 
god.  When  he  subsequently  fell  a  victim  to  assassination  by 
Bagoas,  who  made  dagger-handles  of  his  thigh-bones,  and  gave 
his  flesh  to  cats,  superstition  saw  in  this  a  retribution  correspond- 
ing to  that  which  fell  on  Cambyses2.  The  temples  were  not  only 
stripped  of  the  gold  and  silver  which  they  contained,  but  rifled  of 
their  ancient  records,  which  Bagoas  subsequently  restored  for  a 
large  sum  to  the  priests3.  The  Greek  mercenaries  were  dismissed 
•with  munificent  rewards ;  Pherendates  was  made  satrap  of  Egypt, 
and  Ochus  in  350  B.C.,  led  back  his  army  in  triumph  to  Babylon. 

Of  the  administration  of  the  Persians  in  Egypt  during  the 
remainder  of  the  reign  of  Ochus  and  that  of  Darius  Codomannus, 
nothing  is  known.  The  long  struggles  of  Sparta,  Athens,  and 
Thebes,  for  supremacy  in  Greece,  had  ended  in  their  subjugation 
by  Macedonia,  and  one  of  the  first  uses  which  Philip  made  of  the 
command  which  he  acquired  by  the  battle  of  Chaeronea,  was  to 
prepare  an  expedition  against  Persia.  His  own  assassination  by 
Perdiccas  prevented  his  execution  of  this  plan,  but  it  was  resumed 

1  Lynceus  (who  lived  280  B.C.  See  Clinton,  F.  H.  3,  498)  says  that  Nec- 
tanebus  was  taken  prisoner  and  invited  to  supper  by  Ochus.  The  feast 
appeared  mean  to  Xectanebus,  who  requested  to  be  allowed  to  order  his 
former  cooks  to  prepare  an  Egyptian  supper.  When  Ochus  had  partaken 
of  it  he  exclaimed,  "  0  Egyptian,  what  folly  to  leave  such  feasts  as  these, 
and  set  your  heart  on  a  more  spare  diet!"  (Athen.  4,  p.  150.)  Persian  diet, 
however,  was  more  hixurious  than  Egyptian. 

2  ^Elian,  V.  Hist.  6,  8.  Suid.  a  v.  Aa/W  ^x0^-  ^han.  Hist.  Anim. 
10,  28. 

3  Diod.  Sic.  16,  15. 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


433 


by  Alexander,  who  crossed  the  Hellespont  in  334  B.C.    The  battle 
of  the  Granicus  gave  him  possession  of  Asia  Minor ;  that  of  Issus, 
of  Syria ;  the  sieges  of  Tyre  and  Gaza,  of  the  coast  of  Phoenicia, 
Palestine,  and  the  Idumean  Arabia1.    Seven  days'  march  brought 
him  from  Gaza  to  Pelusium,  the  fleet  accompanying  hin.  Maza- 
ces,  whom  Darius  had  appointed  satrap  of  Egypt,  did  not  attempt 
resistance.     The  Persian  armies  had  been  driven  across  the 
Euphrates,  and  the  Egyptians  were  prepared  to  welcome  the  con- 
querors of  their  own  masters.    Having  placed  a  garrison  in  Pelu- 
sium, he  marched  through  the  desert  country  along  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Nile  to  Heliopolis,  and  crossing  the  river  there  came 
to  Memphis,  where  his  fleet,  which  had  sailed  up  the  Nile,  was 
awaiting  him.    Greek  philosophy  had  banished  fanaticism  from 
his  mind,  and  policy  clearly  dictated  that  he  should  conciliate  the 
Egyptians,  whose  religious  feelings  had  been  deeply  wounded  by 
the  Persians.    Having  sacrificed  to  the  other  gods  and  Apis,  he 
descended  the  Nile  by  the  Canopic  branch,  and  fixed  the  site  of 
the  new  city,  which  still  preserves  his  name  and  attests  his 
sagacity.    Hence,  after  founding  a  temple  to  Isis,  he  set  out  for  the 
oracle  of  the  Libyan  Ammon,  a  divinity  whom  Greeks  and 
Egyptians  agreed  to  honor.    His  expedition  was  performed  along 
the  coast  of  Libya  as  far  as  Parse tonium,  thence  through  the 
Desert  to  the  Oasis  of  Siwah.    On  his  return  he  avoided  the  dan- 
gers to  which  he  had  exposed  himself,  and  took  the  shorter  route 
by  the  Natron  Lakes  to  Memphis2.    Here,  while  recruits  were 

1  Anrian,  Hist.  3,  1. 

2  On  the  point  whether  Alexander  returned  by  Parsetonium  or  the  Natron 
Lakes,  two  generals  of  Alexander,  Aristobulus  and  Ptolemy  Lagi,  were  at 
variance  in  their  memoirs.  Aristobulus  did  not  write  his  history,  however, 
till  he  was  84  (see  St  Croix,  Examen  Critique,  p.  43),  and  may  have  for- 
gotten minute  circumstances.  I  have  followed  Ptolemy,  whose  account  is 
the  more  probable.  Curtius  agrees  with  Aristobulus,  and  makes  Alexan- 
der found  Alexandria  on  his  way  home  (4,  33). 

VOL.  II.  19 


434 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


raising  in  Greece,  to  repair  the  losses  which  his  army  had  sustained 
in  the  battles  of  the  Granicus  and  Issus,  and  the  sieges  of  Tyre 
and  Gaza,  he  employed  himself  in  arranging  the  future  adminis- 
tration of  Egypt.  Two  Egyptians,  Doloaspis  and  Petisis,  were 
appointed  monarchs  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt ;  but  Petisis 
declining  the  office,  the  whole  kingdom  was  placed  under  Doloas- 
pis. Cleomenes,  a  native  of  Naucratis,  had  the  chief  administra- 
tion of  the  finances,  and  was  instructed  to  allow  the  kingdom  to  be 
governed  entirely  according  to  its  ancient  laws  and  customs ;  the 
inferior  nomarchs  collected  the  tribute  and  paid  it  to  Cleomenes, 
by  whom  it  was  transferred  to  the  Macedonians.  Thus  foreigners 
were  prevented  from  coming  into  collision  with  the  Egyptians,  in 
the  odious  character  of  tax-gatherers,  but  all  real  power  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Macedonians.  A  fleet  of  thirty  tri- 
remes and  four  thousand  men1  sufficed  to  maintain  his  conquest. 
The  command  of  the  garrisons  of  Pelusium  and  Memphis  was 
given  to  companions  of  the  king ;  other  Greeks  held  the  offices  of 
praefect  of  Libya  and  Arabia,  the  command  of  the  army,  the  mer- 
cenaries, and  the  fleet.  Alexander  introduced  the  principle,  which 
the  Romans  afterwards  carried  out  in  the  administration  of  Egypt, 
not  to  allow  any  one  man  to  have  sole  authority  in  a  kingdom  so 
fertile  and  so  strong  by  natural  position,  and  from  various  causes 
so  prone  to  revolt2.  Cleomenes,  however,  the  pnefect  of  Arabia, 
after  Alexander's  departure,  appears  to  have  availed  himself  of  the 
power  which  his  office  as  chief  financier  gave  him,  to  usurp  a  kind 
of  supremacy3,  and  various  acts  of  extortion  are  recorded  of  him, 
in  the  interval  between  the  conquest  of  Egypt  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Ptolemaic  monarchy4.    He  repeated  the  threat  of 

1  Q.  Curt.  4,  33. 

3  Tac.  Hist.  1,  11;  Ann.  2,  59.  Ita  visum  expedire  provinciara  aditu 
difficilem,  annonce  foecundam,  superstitione  ac  laseivia  discordem  ac  mobi- 
lem,  insciam  legum,  dorm  retinere.    (Arrian,  3,  5,  10.) 

*  K.\eofici>T)i  Aiyimrov  aarpanevcov.    (Arist.  CEconom.  c.  32.)       *  Arist.  u.  & 


THE  THIRTIETH  DYNASTY. 


435 


Nectanebus,  to  suppress  some  of  the  priesthoods  on  account  of 
their  number,  and  the  largeness  of  the  sums  expended  on  religious 
ceremonies,  and  thus  obtained  from  the  priests  considerable  sums, 
not  only  from  their  private  property,  but  from  the  treasures  of  the 
temples. 

Alexander  left  Memphis  early  in  the  spring  of  331  B.C.,  and 
having  crossed  the  Nile  and  its  various  canals  on  bridges,  passed 
the  Desert,  and  at  Tyre  joined  his  fleet,  which  had  preceded  him. 
He  never  again  visited  Egypt ;  but  his  corpse  was  brought  hither 
from  Babylon  and  deposited  at  Alexandria  in  a  sarcophagus1, 
within  a  funeral  hypogseum2.  In  the  division  of  his  empire  Egypt 
was  chosen  for  his  portion  by  Ptolemy,  the  son  of  Lagus,  with 
whom  begins  a  new  period  of  its  history. 

1  Juvenal,  Sat.  10,  172. 

9  Lucan,  Pharsal.  10,  19,  speaking  of  Julius  Caesar, — 

Effossum  tumulis  cupide  descendit  in  antrum. 
Illie  Pellaei  proles  vesana  Philippi 
Felix  prsedo  jacet. 


THE  END. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Ababdeh,  the,  L  54. 
Abaris  (Auaris),  iL  153,  163,  269. 
Aboosimbel  (Aboccis),  L  20 ;  iL  390 
note. 

 ,  Greek  inscription  there,  iL  346. 

 ,  temple  of;  iL  232. 

Abydos,  L  38. 

 Tablet  of,  ii  90,  135,  170. 

Acacia,  L  122. 
Achoris,  iL  417. 
Actisanes,  iL  308  note, 
Adonis,  mourning  for,  L  348. 
^Egyptus,  ii.  261. 

iEra,  not  used  by  the  Egyptians,  iL  79. 
jEsculapius,  i.  333. 

 ,  -worship  paid  to  his  serpent, 

ii.  2. 

Africa,  whether  circumnavigated  by 

the  Phoenicians,  iL  338. 
Africanus,  Julius,  ii.  74. 
Agesilaus,  his  campaign  in  Egypt^  iL 

424. 

Alabaster,  quarries  of,  L  41. 

Alabastron,  L  41,  196. 

Alexander,  his  supposed  sarcopha- 
gus, ii.  414. 

Alexandria,  its  population,  L  151. 

 ,  foundation  of,  iL  433. 

Alluvium,  deposit  of,  i.  66,  127. 

Alphabetical  characters,  when  ar- 
ranged, iL  271. 

Alumni.  61  ;  ii.  363. 

Amasis,  ii.  357. 

 ,  his  laws,  ii.  39. 

 (satrap),  ii.  404. 

Amenmeses,  iL  284  note. 

Amenophis  I.,  ii.  174. 

 IL,  iL  196. 

 III.,  ii.  197. 

Amenthe,  L  330,  406. 

Ammonium,  i.  59. 


Ammonium,  expedition  of  Cambyses 

against,  ii.  390. 
Amosis,  iL  172. 
Aniun,  L  310. 

Amun  Khem,  L  315 ;  iL  275. 
Amunt,  L  321. 
Amuntuanch,  ii.  211. 
Amyrtaeus,  ii.  409,  412. 
Anaglyphs,  i.  268. 

Anatomy,  whether  known  in  Egypt, 

L  228 ;  ii.  103. 
Anaxatroras,  his  doctrine  concerning 

God,  L  367. 
Androsphinx,  L  115,  145. 
Animals,  sanctity  of,  in  India,  iL  9. 

 ,  Egyptian  worship  of,  ii.  1-21. 

 ,  as  military  ensigns,  iL  6. 

Anouke,  L  323. 
Anubis,  i.  356. 

 with  head  of  jackal,  L  356. 

Anysis,  iL  304 
Aphrodite,  Celestial,  i.  324. 
Apion,  ii.  152 

Apis,  his  worship  when  introduced, 
ii.  5. 

 ,  honors  paid  to  him,  ii  18. 

 ,  his  marks,  iL  18. 

 ,  Epiphaneia  of,  iL  326,  393. 

 ,  mummies  of,  ii.  20. 

Apollodorus,  his  list  of  kings,  iL  81, 

164  note. 
Arabic  numerals,  L  290. 
Arch,  its  antiquity,  L  217. 
Ark  of  the  Covenant,  L  386. 
Armais,  ii.  262. 
Aroeris,  see  Haroeris. 
Art,  Egyptian,  L  171;  ii.  295,  326 
 ,  ,  influenced  by  religion, 

L  223,  225. 
 ,  ,  its  progress  the  same  as 

that  of  civilization,  i.  229. 

 ,  decline  of,  ii.  285,  423. 

Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  iL  423. 


438 


INDEX. 


Arutu,  nation,  ii.  188. 
Ases  (Asseth),  i.  278  ;  ii.  160  note. 
Ashes,  criminals  plunged  in,  ii.  126. 
Asp,  emblem  of  the  Sun,  ii.  17. 
Asphaltum,  its  use  in  embalmment, 

i.  413. 

Assyrian  empire,  ii.  284. 
Assyrians,  their  power,  ii.  157,  179. 
Atet,  fortress,  ii.  218. 
Atinre,  ii.  211. 

Athens,  whether  a  colony  from  Sais, 

ii.  331. 

 ,  its  alliances  with  Egypt,  ii 

408,  413. 
Athom,  i.  330. 
Athor,  i.  325. 

Atlantis,  island,  its  submersion,  ii. 

338,  369. 
Atmoo,  i.  330. 

Atmosphere  of  Egypt,  its  effect  on 

colors,  i.  220. 
Auaris  (Abaris),  ii.  153. 
Automoli,  ii.  330,  331. 
Azotus,  siege  of,  328. 

B. 

B,  pronounced  as  ou,  i.  329. 
Bab,  its  signification,  i.  140. 
Babylon,  ii.  191. 

 ,  Egyptian,  ii.  241. 

Babylonians,  their  inventions,  i.  286. 
Bagoas,  ii.  431. 
Bahr-be-la-Ma,  i.  58,  66. 
Bahr-Jusuf,  i.  37,  95,  124. 
Barabras,  i.  87. 
Barathra,  ii.  429. 

Barbarians,  all  other  nations  so  call- 
ed by  the  Egyptians,  ii.  209. 
Ban,  i.  177,  385,  420,  426. 
Basalt,  i  221. 
Basis,  ii.  106. 

Bas-relief,  Egyptian,  its  peculiarity, 

i.  228. 

Beans,  an  impure  vegetable,  i.  37 5. 
Beard,  absence  of,  in  African  nations, 

ii.  141. 

Beitoualli,  temple  of,  ii.  226. 
Belzoni,  i.  20,  108. 

 ,  tomb  discovered  by,  i.  141. 

Berbers,  ii.  209. 
Besa,  i.  381. 

Birket-el-Kerur,  i.  42;  ii.  131. 


Blemmyes,  i.  23. 

Bocchoris,  ii.  301,  303. 

 ,  his  legislation,  ii.  47. 

Boeckh,  his  view  of  Manetho's  chro- 
nology, ii.  77  note. 

Bonaparte,  his  campaign  in  Egyp^ 
ii.  421. 

Book  of  the  Dead,  i.  407. 

Books  not  in  common  use  in  Egypt* 

i.  239. 

Bow,  mode  of  drawing,  i.  189. 
Breccia,  quarries  of,  i.  53. 
Bridge  in  Egyptian  monuments,  ii. 
218  note. 

 of  boats  over  the  Hellespont, 

ii.  405. 

Bridges,  none  on  the  Nile,  i.  178. 

Bubastis,  ii.  290. 

Bull,  of  what  a  type,  ii.  15. 

Bunsen,  his  mode  of  reconciling  Era- 
tosthenes and  Manetho,  ii.  82,  110 
note. 

Busiris,  king,  ii.  66. 

 ,  city,  i.  47. 

Buto,  goddess,  i.  321. 
Byblos,  i.  344,  348. 

C. 

Cabiri,  i.  319,  333. 
Cadmus,  the  historian,  ii.  56. 
Calasirians,  i.  187  ;  ii.  34,  327,  405. 
Camels  in  Egypt,  i.  63  ;  ii.  378. 
Canal,  between  the  Nile  and  the 

Red  Sea,  ii.  245,  335,  402. 
Cancer,  Tropic  of,  i.  23. 
Candace,  her  war  with  the  Romans, 

ii.  389. 
Canopi,  i.  341. 

Canopic  mouth,  first  frequented  by 

the  Greeks,  ii.  52. 
Captives  represented  on  furniture,  i. 

198. 

Caravan  routes  from  Egypt  to  Meroe, 

i.  21  ;  ii.  388. 
Carchemish,  battle  of,  ii.  342. 
Carians  in  Egypt,  i.  390. 
 ,  their  settlement  in  Egypt,  ii. 

321. 

Caricature,  i.  226. 

Carthaginians,  their  naval  power,  ii. 

382.  _ 
Casluhim,  ii.  161. 


INDEX. 


439 


Caste,  law  of,  ii.  23,  36,  37. 
Cat,  sanctity  of,  ii.  3. 

 ,  consecrated  to  the  moon,  ii.  17. 

Cataracts,  i.  12,  16,  18,  26. 
Cavalry,  not  used  in  Esrvpt,  i.  191. 
Cedar,  oil  of,  i.  414,  417. 
Ceilings,  astronomical,  i.  142,  143. 
Cemeteries,  Egyptian,  on  the  western 

side  of  the  Sile,  L  420,  421. 
Cerberus,  i.  342. 

Chabrias,  his  campaigns  in  Egypt, 
ii.  418,  424. 

Chaerernon,  his  work  on  Hierogly- 
phics, ii.  306  note. 

Charon,  L  426. 

Chebros,  ii.  176. 

Cherubim,  i.  386. 

Cliemi,  name  of  Egypt,  ii.  97. 

Chemistry,  origin  of  the  name,  L  182. 

Chesebt,  metal,  ii.  192,  218. 

Chinese  writing,  i.  259. 

Chiun,  worship  of,  ii.  272. 

Coachutaj  (not  Cholehyta),  L  423. 

Chons,  i.  322. 

Chronicle,  the  Old  Egyptian,  ii.  79. 
Chronology,  Egyptian,   ii.  75,  77, 
166. 

Circesium,  battle  of,  ii.  342. 

Circumcision,  i.  376,  378. 

Clemens  Alexandrinus,  his  enumera- 
tion of  Egyptian  priests,  ii.  85. 

Coinage  not  known  in  Egypt,  i.  290. 

 introduced  by  the  Persians,  ii. 

400. 

Colchians,  their  similarity  to  the 

Egyptians,  ii.  238. 
Colossal  in  art,  its  effect,  i.  224. 
Color,  conventional,  of  the  male  and 

female  in  Egyptian  painting,  L  82. 

 applied  to  sculpture,  i.  220. 

Comasiae,  i.  384. 
Comastes,  L  25 ;  ii.  384. 
Concharis,  ii.  160. 

Concubines,  their  children  legiti- 
mate, ii.  47. 

Constellations,  influence  of,  L  382. 

Copper  mines,  i.  51 ;  ii.  118. 

Coronation,  ceremonies  of,  ii.  274. 

Corslet,  linen,  of  Amasis,  L  182;  ii. 
362. 

Cosseir  road,  inscriptions  in,  iL  12^, 
403,  404,  405. 


Cotton,  whether  used  in  bandages, 
i.  414. 

 ,  whether  grown  in  E^vpt,  L 

159;  ii.  362. 

Cranium,  the  Egyptian,  distinguisha- 
ble by  its  hardness,  i.  208  note. 

Criosphinx,  i.  115,  note  145. 

Crocodile,  not  now  found  in  Lower 
Egypt,  L  79. 

 ,  mode  of  its  capture,  L  172. 

 ,  its  import  in  mythology,  i.  330. 

 ,  worship  of,  i.  29;  iL  16. 

 ,  symbol  of  Typhon,  ii.  15. 

 ,   of  darkness,  L  383. 

 ,  ornaments  bestowed  upon,  iL 

13. 

Crown  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egvpt, 

L  208  note. 
Cubit,  Egyptian,  i.  290. 
Cycle,  Sothiac,  i.  280. 

 ,  its  commencement,  ii.  247. 

Cynocephalus,  i.  359. 

 ,  emblem  of  Thoth,  ii.  15. 

Cyprus,  conquest  of,  ii.  276. 

 ,  its  relations  to  Persia,  ii.  407, 

416. 

Cyrene,  foundation  of,  ii.  353. 

  war  of  Apnea  against,  ii.  356. 

 ,  of  Aryandes  against,  ii.  399. 

D. 

Daha3,  ii.  188. 

Danaides  bring  the  mysteries  of  De- 
meter  to  the  Peloponnesus,  i.  392. 

Danaus,  story  of  his  migration,  ii.  52, 
260. 

Darius  Hvstaspis,  ii.  397. 

 Oehus,  ii.  427. 

 Codomannus,  ii.  438. 

Dead,  state  of,  according  to  the  He- 
brews, i.  397,  399  note. 

 ,  according  to  the  early  Greeks, 

i.  398. 

Debtor  and  creditor,  law  of,  ii.  47. 
Decans,  L  287. 
Delta,  apex  of,  45. 

 ,  its  formation,  i.  66  ;  ii.  105,  106. 

Demigods,  their  reigns,  ii.  93. 
Democritus,  ii.  63. 

 ,  his  visit  to  Egypt,  ii.  410. 

Demotic  character,  when  first  intro- 
duced, iL  403. 


440 


INDEX. 


Desert,  the,  Vet  ween  Palestine  and 

Egypt,  iL  377. 
 -,  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia, 

ii.  388. 

Dialect,  sacred,  i.  265,  268. 

Dicrearchus,  ii.  64,  139. 

Diodorus,  ii.  64-72. 

 ,  variations  between  him  and 

Herodotus,  ii.  70. 

Divination,  i.  380. 

Doric  order,  its  origin,  i.  214. 

Draughts,  game  of,  i.  204 ;  ii.  281. 

Dromon,  i.  219. 

Dynasty,  its  meaning,  ii.  94. 

Dynasties  of  Manetho,  whether  con- 
temporaneous, ii.  80,  156. 

E. 

Egypt,  extent  of  its  coast,  i.  49. 

 ,  want  of  harbors,  i.  49. 

 ,  fertility  of  its  soil,  i.  72. 

 ,  temperature,  i.  77,  79. 

 ,  healthiness,  i.  77. 

 ,  cheapness  of  living,  i.  153. 

 ,  native  name  of,  i.  182. 

 ,  fecundity  of  women  in,  i.  153 

note. 

 ,  its  monarchy  one,  ii.  80. 

 ,  taxation  under  the  Persians,  i. 

397. 

 ,  amount  of  population,  i.  151. 

 ,  state  under  the  Persians,  ii  411. 

Eimopth,  i.  333. 

Eibo,  island  of,  ii.  305,  318. 

Election  of  kings,  ii.  24. 

Elephant,  found  in  Egyptian  pictures, 

ii.  187. 
Elephantiasis,  i.  79. 
Eleusinian  Mysteries,  i.  394. 
Elians,  their  visit  to  Egypt,  ii.  346. 
Embalmment,  its  antiquity,  ii.  103. 

 ,  its  purpose,  i  399. 

 ,  different  mode  of,  i  412. 

Emeph,  L  313 
Emeralds,  mines  of,  i.  53. 
Epagomena?,  i.  278. 
Epiphaneia  of  Apis,  ii.  18. 
Eratosthenes,  ii.  64,  81. 
Ergamenes,  i.  22. 
Etesian  winds,  i.  68,  292. 
Ethiopia,  conception  of,  in  the  age  of 

Herodotus,  ii  383. 


Ethiopian  monarchy,  extent  of,  ii 

305. 

Ethiopians,  visit  of  gods  to,  i  385. 
Ethiopic  language,  ii.  308  note. 
Eunuchs,  whether  known  in  ancient 

Egypt,  ii.  138. 
Evagoras,  his  alliance  with  Egypt,  ii 

417. 

Eusebius,  his  chronology,  ii.  74. 

 ,  arbitrary  changes  in,  ii.  151 

note. 

Exodus  of  the  Israelites,  ii.  262-272. 
Eye  of  Osiris,  i.  337. 
Eyes,  artificial,  i.  417. 
"  Eyes  of  the  King,"  ii.  244  note. 
Ezekiel,  his  prophecy  against  Egypt, 
ii.  352. 

F. 

Factories  of  the  Greeks  in  Egypt, 

ii.  362. 
Famine  in  Egypt,  i.  71. 
Fanbearers,  ii.  28. 

Feast  of  the  gods  with  the  Ethiopi- 
ans, i.  385. 

Fekkaroo,  ii.  277,  279. 

Fish  forbidden  to  priests,  i.  375. 

Fish  of  the  Nile,  their  species,  i.  173. 

Flint  knives,  i.  411. 

Flowers  in  Egypt  not  fragrant,  i.  75. 

 ,  their  symbolical  import,  ii.  12. 

Forest,  petrified,  near  Cairo,  i.  66. 

Fortification,  art  of,  i.  195  note. 

Fowl,  domestic,  whether  known  in 
Egypt,  i.  174. 

Frog,  emblem  of  Life,  i.  349. 

Fruits  of  Egypt,  i.  167. 

Furniture,  buried  with  deceased  per- 
sons, i.  423. 

Fyoum,  i.  42. 

a 

Gardening,  art  of,  i.  168. 
Gardens  of  Solomon,  i.  169. 
Germanicus,  his  visit  to  Thebes,  ii 
192. 

Giligammae,  ii.  256. 
Gloves,  worn  by  northern  captives, 
ii  186. 

Gods,  division  of,  i.  307,  308. 
 ,  reign  of,  ii.  95. 


INDEX. 


441 


Gold  mines,  i.  54. 

Goshen,  its  position,  ii.  195. 

Grain,  what  species  cultivated  in 
Egypt,  i.  158. 

Granite,  quarries  of,  L  27. 

Greeks,  their  contempt  for  barbari- 
ans, ii.  63. 

 ,  their  neglect  of  foreign  lan- 
guages, ii.  324. 

Grottos  of  Benihassan,  L  39. 

 of  Koul-el-Ahmar,  i.  41. 

Gymnastic  exercises,  L  189,  200,  203, 
228. 

H. 

Ham,  name  of,  i.  81. 
Hapimoou,  i.  332. 
Harka,  i.  323. 
Haroeris,  i.  329,  353. 
Harper's  Tomb,  ii.  280. 
Harpocrates,  i.  345,  354. 
Hatching  by  artificial  heat,  i.  175. 
Hawk,  emblem  of  Horus,  ii.  15. 
Head-stool,  used  by  the  Egyptians, 
i.  199. 

Heavens,  emblematic  figure  of,  142, 
331. 

HeeaUeus  of  Miletus,  L  85 ;  ii  56. 
Hellanicus,  ii.  57. 

Hellenion,  factory  of  the  Greeks  in 

Egypt,  il  362. 
Henneh,  use  of,  211. 
Heracleopolis,  ii.  130. 
Hermapion,  his  interpretation  of  an 

obelisk,  i.  245. 
Hermes,  books  of,  ii.  85. 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  i.  358. 
Hermotybians,  i.  190;  if.  34. 
Herodotus,  ii.  56-62. 
 ,  his  deficiency  in  calculation,  ii 

331. 

Heroes,  worship  of,  L  362. 

 ,  reign  of,  ii  95. 

Hestia,  L  323. 

Hieroglyphics,  i.  238-272. 

 ,  knowledge  of  them  how  far 

diffused,  i.  240;  ii.  62. 

 order  of  reading  them,  i.  260. 

Hierogrammateus,  i.  378;  ii.  86. 

Hincks,  I>r.  E,  il  134. 

 ,  his  modifications  of  Champol- 

lion's  system,  i.  272. 


Hipparchus,  discoverer  of  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  i.  283. 

Hippopotamus,  L  171. 

 ,  symbol  of  crime,  ii.  100. 

 ,  symbol  of  darkness,  i.  342. 

Hippy s  of  Rhegium,  ii  56  note. 

Homer,  his  account  of  Thebes,  i.  150 ; 
ii.  54. 

 ,  his  account  of  Pharos,  ii  53. 

Horapollo,  i.  242. 
Hor-hat,  his  emblem,  i.  219,  329. 
Horologium,  L  276;  ii.  86. 
Horoscopus,  i.  378,  383;  ii  85. 
Horse,  its  use,  i.  166,  167. 
Horns,  god,  i.  353. 

 ,  king,  ii.  208. 

 ,  "the  golden,"  ii.  125. 

Hyksos,  their  invasion,  ii.  153. 

L 

Iamblichus,  i.  302. 
Iatromathematic,  i  292. 
Ibis,  emblem  of  Thoth,  ii.  16. 
Ichneumon,  ii.  132. 
Ichthvophagi,  act  as  interpreters,  ii. 
384. 

Idumseans,  ii.  377. 

Illumination  in  honor  of  Xeith,  i. 

391. 
Inaros,  ii.  407. 

India,    supposed    early  connexion 

with  Egypt,  i.  89,  92. 

 ,  tenure  of  land  in,  ii.  22. 

 ,  sanctity  of  plants  and  animals 

in,  il  9. 
Interest,  rate  of,  ii.  48. 
Interpreters,  caste  of,  ii  36,  324. 
Io,  legend  of,  ii.  1,  51. 
Ionic  order,  its  origin,  i.  215. 
Iphi  crates,  his  campaigns  in  Egypt, 

ii.  420. 

Is,  bituminous  springs  of,  ii.  1 92. 
Isaiah,  his  prophecies  against  Egypt, 

il  315. 
Isiac  rites,  i.  394. 
Isis,  i.  340. 

Islands  of  the  Blessed,  i.  51,  404, 408. 
J. 

Jablonskv,  Pantheon  /Egyptiorum, 
1  298,  311. 


442 


INDEX. 


Jebusites,  ii.  159. 

Jehovah,  his  name  unknown  to  the 
Jews  in  the  time  of  Moses,  ii.  272. 

Jeremiah,  his  prophecy  against 
Apries,  ii.  350. 

Jerusalem,  capture  of,  by  Sheshonk, 
ii.  292. 

 ,  ,  by  Neco,  ii.  340. 

 ,   ,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  ii. 

349. 

Jews,  not  the  same  as  the  Hyksos, 
ii.  158. 

 ,  their  departure  from  Egypt,  ii. 

263. 

 ,  Manetho's  account  of,  ii.  207. 

 ,  employed  in  brickmaking,  ii. 

194. 

Jewish  laws,  resemblance  to  the 

Egyptian,  ii.  43. 
Josephus,  his  unfairness,  ii.  158,  159, 

166. 

Judgment  of  kings,  posthumous,  ii. 
27. 

Judgment-scene,  i.  341,  360. 
Jukasa,  land  of,  ii.  192. 

K. 

Kan  ana,  land  of,  ii.  216. 

Karnak,  royal  tablet  of,  ii.  90,  193. 

 ,  statistical  tablet  of,  ii.  187. 

Khamsin,  i.  57  note. 
Kings  of  Egypt,  their  mode  of  life, 
ii.  25. 

 ,  number  of,  ii.  160  note. 

Kneph,  i.  313. 
Korosko,  Akaba  of,  388. 
Kufa,  nation,  ii.  186. 
Kuphi,  i.  374. 

L. 

Labyrinth,  i.  44 ;  ii.  144,  148,  322. 
Lacrates,   commands   the  Theban 

troops  in  Egypt,  ii.  430. 
Lakes,  the  Bitter,  ii.  335. 
Land,  threefold  division  of,  ii.  22,  29. 

 ,  tenure  of,  in  Egypt,  ii.  22. 

Lark,   crested,   venerated  by  the 

Lemnians,  ii.  14. 
Laterculus  of  Syncellus,  ii.  79,  164 

note. 


Latus,  the  fish,  i.  34. 

Law,  administration  of,  ii.  33,  41. 

 ,  Egyptian,  its  humanity,  ii.  43. 

Layard's  Nineveh,  ii.  190,  285. 
Legislators,  Egyptian,  ii.  20. 
Lemanen,  nation,  ii.  191. 
Leopard's  skin,  worn  by  priests,  i. 
421. 

Lepidotus,  the  fish,  i.  345. 
Leprosy  among  the  Jews,  ii.  270. 
Lepsius,  his  discovery  of  marks  of 

rise  of  the  Nile  in  Nubia,  i.  18 

note. 

 ,  reading  of  the  name  Osortasen, 

ii.  135. 

 ,  of  the  name  of  the  builder 

of  the  Labyrinth,  ii.  146. 

 ,  of  the  name  Set,  ii.  215. 

Leto,  i.  323. 

Lex  talionis,  ii.  44. 

Library  of  the  Rameseion,  i.  131. 

Libyans,  ii.  99. 

Linan t,  his  discoveries  in  the  Fyoum, 

i.  42;  ii.  131. 
Lion-hunt,  ii.  278. 

Lion,  tamed,  accompanying  the  king, 

i.  194  note. 
Lions,  of  the  Fontana  di  Termini,  ii. 

423. 

Lotus,  the  sacred,  i.  76. 

 ,  its  use  for  food,  i.  161. 

Ludim,  nation,  ii.  222. 
Ludnu,  nation,  ii.  187,  217. 
Lydia,  had  a  partly  Semitic  popula- 
tion, ii.  218. 

M. 

Magicians  of  Egypt,  i.  382. 

Mandoulis,  i.  331. 

Mandoo,  i.  331. 

Maneros,  song  of,  i.  201. 

Manes,  reign  of,  ii.  76. 

Manetho,  ii.  73,  76. 

 ,  whether  his  dynasties  were 

consecutive,  ii.  79-82. 
■  ,  duration  of  his  dynasties,  ii. 

91,  149. 
Manmisi,  i.  32,  214;  ii.  200. 
Manoskh,  i.  148. 

Marriage  of  sisters  and  brothers,  ii. 
46. 


INDEX. 


443 


Mars,  i.  364,  390. 

 ,   worship  of,  at  Papremis,  i. 

390. 

Marshes  of*  Egypt,  character  of  the 

population  of,  ii.  52,  409. 
Mashiosa,  ii.  276. 
Mauthemva,  ii.  197,  200,  207. 
Medicine,  i.  290. 

Megabazus,  his  mission  to  Sparta,  ii. 
408. 

Melampus,  i.  335,  337,  391 ;  ii  262. 
Melek,  on  Egyptian  monuments,  ii. 

371  note,  404. 
Memnon,  ii.  203-208. 
Memnonia,  unhealthy  employments 

carried  on  there,  i.  412. 
Memphis,  etymology  of,  ii.  96. 
Mendes,  worship  of  the  goat  there, 

ii.  5,  106. 
Mennahom,  nation,  ii.  276. 
Menzaleh,  lake  of,  i.  46. 
Meroe,  i.  8,  88 ;  ii.  305. 
 ,  whether  the   civilization  of 

Egypt  was  derived  thence,  ii.  41 

note,  144. 
Metempsychosis,  i.  91,  400,  406 ;  ii. 

8. 

Mexican  writing,  i.  259. 

Milesians,  their  settlement  in  Egypt, 

ii.  301,  322. 
Military  age,  i.  152. 
Mines,  the  working  of,  ii.  44. 

 ,  emerald,  i.  53. 

Minotaur,  legend  of,  ii.  1. 
Mizraim,  ii.  97. 
Mnevis,  worship  of,  ii.  5. 
Mceris,  lake,  i.  43;  ii.  131,  193. 

 ,  its  fisheries,  i.  173. 

 ,  etymology  of,  ii.  131. 

Mokattam,  quarries  of,  i.  116. 
Moloch,  his  worship,  ii.  272. 
Momemphis,  ii.  322. 
Mons  Casius,  ii.  162  note. 
Months,  Egyptian,  their  names,  i. 

277  note. 

Monuments,  public,  their  superiority 

to  all  other  evidence,  ii.  169. 
Mora,  game  of,  i.  205. 
Mountains  of  the  Moon,  i.  6. 
Mourning,  i.  411. 

Mouse,  an  emblem  of  destruction,  ii. 
313. 


Mummies  of  animals,  i.  120,  121, 

140 ;  ii.  4. 
Mummies,  pledged  for  debt,  ii.  48. 

 ,  kept  in  houses,  i.  419. 

 ,  Greek,  i.  415  note. 

Mummy,  derivation  of,  i.  418  note. 

 ,  introduced  at  banquets,  i.  201. 

Mysteries,  i  392. 

 ,  Eleusinian,  i.  395. 

N. 

Namia,  metrical,  i.  411  note. 

Naharaina,  ii.  178,  183,  192. 

Nahsi,  ii.  218,  256. 

Namhu,  ii.  218. 

Nantef,  ii.  144. 

Napata,  i.  15;  ii.  389. 

Nasamones,  ii.  256. 

Natron  Lakes,  i.  59. 

Natron,  its  use  in  embalmment,  i.  413. 

Naucratis,  ii.  54. 

Navigation,  disesteemed  in  Egypt, 
ii.  36. 

Nebuchadnezzar,   his    invasion  of 

Egypt,  ii.  352. 
Nectanebus  I.,  ii.  420. 
Nectanebus  II,  ii.  428. 
Nefruatep,  ii.  144,  161. 
Negro  in  Egyptian  monuments,  ii. 

185. 

  physiognomy  different  from 

the  Egyptian,  i.  82. 
Neith,  i  326. 

Nemroud,  Egyptian  tablets  found  at, 

ii.  190,  285  note. 
Nemt-amen,  peculiarity  of,  ii.  179. 
Nenii,  supposed  Nineveh,  ii.  190. 
Neocoros,  ii.  25. 
Neo-Platonists,  i.  297. 
Nepenthe,  ii.  53. 
Nephra,  son  of  Amasis,  ii.  404. 
Nephthys,  i.  355. 
Netpe,  i.  334,  416. 
Nevopth,  tomb  of,  i.  40 ;  ii.  142. 
Niger,  the,   confounded,  with  the 

Nile,  i.  5. 
Nile,  its  changes  of  color,  i.  73. 

 ,  figure  of,  i.  333 ;  ii.  201. 

Nile-water,  i.  73,  200. 

Nile,  omens  derived  from,  ii  10T. 

Niloa,  i.  332,  388. 


444 


INDEX. 


Kilometer,  i.  28. 

Nil os,  town,  i.  332. 

"Nine  Bows,"  nation  of,  ii.  178,  213, 

257  note. 
Nineveh,  capture  of,  ii.  342. 
Nitocris,  her  history,  ii.  126. 

 ,  queen  of  Babvlon,  ii.  371. 

No- Amnion,  i.  128 
Nofre,  i.  331. 

Nomes,  their  division,  ii.  40. 

 ,  twelve  predominant,  ii.  41. 

Noph,  ii.  286. 

North,  symbol  of,  ii.  292. 

Nubia,  its  climate  and  soil,  i.  24. 

O. 

Oaths  by  vegetables,  ii.  12. 
Obelisk  of  St.  John  Lateran,  i.  230 ; 
ii.  184. 

 of  Nectanebus,  ii.  422. 

1  of  Luxor,  i.  144. 

 of  Heliopolis,  i.  46. 

 of  the  Fyoum,  i.  43;  ii.  134. 

 of  Karnak,  i.  145. 

 of  Monte  Citorio,  i.  230 ;  ii.  326. 

 of  Apnea,  i.  230. 

 of  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  i.  232. 

 of  Philte,  i.  26,  251. 

Obelisks,  placed  in  pairs,  i.  144. 

 in  the  quarries  of  Syene,  i.  185. 

 of  the  Roman  times,  i.  232  note. 

 ,  mode  of  raising,  i.  288. 

Obliteration  of  names,  i.  350. 
Ocean,  whether  an  Egyptian  name 

for  the  Nile,  i.  425. 
Officers  of  state,  ii.  28. 
Onions,     whether    worshiped  in 

Egypt,  ii.  11. 
Orphic  doctrines,  i.  318,  320,  325, 

337,  400. 
Osarsiph,  ii.  269. 

"  Osirian,"  appellation  of  deceased 

persons,  i.  408;  ii.  249.  . 
Osiride  columns,  i.  216. 
Osiris,  i.  334,  342. 

 ,  forty-two  assessors  of,  i.  143, 

342. 

 ,  mythe  of,  i.  343. 

 ,  porcelain  figures  of,  i.  415. 

 ,  eye  of,  i.  422. 

Osvmandyas,  tomb  of,  i.  130,  131 ;  ii. 
236. 


Osymandyas,  circle  of,  i.  286. 
Otsch,  fortress,  ii.  218. 
Oxyrrynchus,  town,  i.  41. 
Oxyrrynchus,  fish,  ii.  15. 

P. 

Paamyles,  i.  343. 
Paamylia,  i.  392. 
Painting,  art  of,  i.  139,  227. 

 of  tombs,  i.  139. 

Pallaces,  of  Jupiter,  i.  143. 
Palm,  emblematic,  i.  359. 
Palm-tree,  its  uses,  i.  74. 

 ,  Theban  (Doum),  i.  79,  168. 

Panegyries,  hall  of,  i.  148. 

 ,  where  held,  i.  389. 

Papremis,  i.  364,  390. 

Papyri,  age  of  the  earliest,  ii.  85. 

 ,  funeral,  i.  408. 

Papyrus,  its  manufacture,  i.  75. 

 ,  use  for  food,  i.  161. 

 of  Sallier,  ii.  242. 

Paraschistes,  i.  413. 

Pastophori,  i.  378;  ii.  87. 

Pathros,  i.  325  note. 

Patnouphis,  title  of  Hermes,  i.  358 

note. 
Pepi,  ii.  123. 
Persea,  i.  167;  ii.  10. 
Perseus,  i.  39. 

 •,  tower  of,  i.  48. 

Persian  conquest  of  Egypt,  its  effect, 

ii.  56. 

Perspective,  its  neglect  in  Egyptian 

art,  i.  226. 
Petesuchis,  ii.  147. 
Pethempainenthes,  title  of  Osiris,  i. 

340,  349. 

Petronius,   his   expedition  against 

Napata,  ii.  389. 
Phagrus,  the  fish,  i.  345. 
Phanes,  his  treachery,  ii.  377. 
Pharos,  Homeric  description  of,  ii. 

53. 

Pheron,  ii.  246,  254,  282. 
Philistus,  ii.  63. 
Philitis,  ii.  162. 

Phoenicians,  said  to  have  circumna- 
vigated Africa,  ii.  337. 

 ,  their  connexion  with  Egypt, 

ii.  162. 

Phoenix,  i.  280. 


INDEX. 


445 


Phre,  i.  328  note. 

Phrygians,  claim  superior  antiquity 
to  the  Egyptians,  ii.  332. 

Physicians,  i.  290 ;  ii.  31. 

Pilgrimages,  i.  390. 

Pindar,  his  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion, i.  403. 

Pi-thorn,  ii.  195. 

Plague,  the,  i.  78. 

Plants,  sanctity  of,  ii.  10. 

Plato,  his  testimony  to  the  antiquity 
of  Egypt,  i.  2. 

 ,  of  the  forms  of  Egyptian  art, 

i.  222. 

 ,  his  visit  to  Egypt,  i.  45. 

 ,  his  doctrine  of  transmigration, 

i.  405. 

Plutarch,  de  Iside  et  Osiride,  i.  296. 
Plutus  and  Pluto  the  same,  i.  337. 
Poetry,  historical,  in  Egypt,  ii.  89. 
Polycrates  of  Samos,  his  history,  ii. 
364. 

Polygamy,  i  378 ;  ii.  47. 
Potipherah,  i.  328  note. 
Pount,  land,  ii.  185. 
Precession  of  the  equinoxes,  i.  283. 
Premnis  (Primis  Magna),  ii.  389. 
Priesthood,  effects  of  their  ppwer,  ii. 
27. 

 ,  their  condition  and  influence, 

ii.  29. 

Priests,  whether  judges,  ii.  33. 
Primis  (Ibrim),  ii.  396  note. 
Processions,  i  384. 
Prophetes,  i.  379,  381 ;  ii.  25,  86. 
Proscynema,  i.  422. 
Prussian  Expedition,  their  discove- 
ries, i  112,  131. 
Psammitichus  I.,  ii.  320. 
 IL,  ii.  345. 

 ILL,  assassinates  Tamos,  ii.  417. 

Pschent,  i,  208  note,  329 ;  ii.  275. 
Pthuris  (Farras),  ii.  390  note. 
Pulley,    whether    known    to  the 

Egyptians,  i.  288  note. 
Pylon,  meaning  of,  i.  31. 
Pyramids,  proportions  of,  i.  100. 

 ■,  mode  of  erecting,  i.  106. 

 ,  their  number,  i  112. 

 ,  in  Upper  Egypt,  i.  125. 

 ,  builders  of,  ii.  111-116. 

 ,  Ethiopian,  i.  10. 


Pyramidion  of  obelisk  gilded,  ii.  184. 
Pylhagoras,  his  visit  to  Earypt,  ii 
325  note. 

 ,  his  residence  in  Esrvpt  and 

doctrine,  i  234,  274,  275,  286, 
294,  367,  400 ;  ii.  54. 

Q. 

Qoorneh,  sepulchres  of,  i.  138. 
Quails  in  Egypt  and  the  Desert  of 

Sinai,  L  174. 
Queens,  their  prerogatives,  ii.  107. 

R. 

Pa,  i  328. 

Raameses,  city,  ii.  195. 
Rain  in  Egypt,  i  79. 
Rameses  I,  ii.  211. 

 I.,  ii.  226. 

 III.,  ii.  228. 

 IV.,  ii.  272. 

 V.-XIV.,  ii.  282-284. 

Rampsinitus,  ii.  282. 
Ranpo,  i.  365. 
Re,  i.  328. 

Rebo,  nation,  ii.  279. 
Records,  antiquity  of,  in  Egypt,  ii. 
83. 

Red  Sea,  routes  from  Egypt  to,  i.  36, 
52. 

Rehearsing,  sign  of,  in  Egyptian  pic- 
tures, ii.  274  note. 
Rekamai,  i.  39. 
Remai,  ii.  124. 

Remanen,  nation,  ii.  191,  217. 
Rent,  its  proportion  to  produce,  ii. 
22. 

 ,  its  amount  in  Egypt,  ii.  22. 

Resurrection,  doctrine  of,  i.  397,  410. 
Rhadamanthys,  etymology  of,  i  408. 
Rhodopis,  ii.  128. 
Rot,  ii.  218. 

Rotno,  nation,  ii.  187,  217. 

S. 

Sabaco,  ii.  308. 

Sacrifices,  human,  i.  369,  371 ;  ii  52. 

Sacrilege,  law  of,  ii.  45. 

Saf,  "Lady  of  Letters,"  i  131 ;  ii.  201. 


446 


INDEX. 


Sagdas,  i.  374. 

Sais,  ii.  318,  319. 

Samaritan  Pentatexich,  ii.  264. 

Sandstone  rock,  its  extent  in  Egypt, 

i.  29. 
Sasychis,  ii,  290. 
Sataspes,  voyage  of,  ii.  338. 
Scape-goat,  L  372. 
Scarabaeus,  sanctity  of,  ii.  9,  17. 
Scythians,  their  invasion  of  Egypt, 

ii.  333. 
Seb,  i.  334. 
Sebek,  i.  329. 

Sebekatep,  sovereigns  of  this  name, 

when  they  lived,  ii.  161. 
Semneh,  ii.  182. 
Sennacherib,  ii.  311. 
Septuagint,  its  variation  from  the 

Hebrew,  ii.  264. 
Serapis,  i.  362. 
Serbonian  bog,  ii.  429. 
Serpent,  emblem  of  Agathodaemon, 

i.  314. 

 of  ^Esculapius,  ii.  2. 

Serpents,  winged,  ii.  16. 
Sesonchis,  ii.  291. 
Sesonchosis,  ii.  122. 
Sesostris,  ii.  138. 

 ,  his  emblems,  ii.  140. 

Set,  name  of  Typhon,  i.  351 ;  ii.  214. 
Sethos,  ii.  311. 
Sethroite  nome,  ii.  153,  157. 
Shairetaan,  ii.  278. 
Sharu  or  Kharu,  nation,  ii.  227. 
Sharpe,  Samuel,  i.  216  note;  ii.  176 
note. 

Sheol  of  the  Hebrews,  i.  336. 
Shepherd  kings,  ii.  152. 
Shepherds,    disesteemed  in  Egypt, 

ii.  267. 

Sheshonk,  his  invasion  of  Judaea, 
ii.  91. 

Sheto,  nation,  ii.  234,  243,  319. 
Shields,  royal,  titular,  and  phonetic, 

ii.  124. 
Shishak,  ii.  290. 
Shos,  ii.  216,  227. 

Sidon,  capture  of,  by  Ochus,  ii.  429. 
Sidonians,  ii.  187. 

Silco,  king  of  the  Blemmyes,  i.  23 
note. 

Silphium,  ii.  256,  355. 


Simoum,  i.  57  note. 
Sinai,  peninsula  of,  i.  51. 
Singara,  ii.  192,  222. 
Skhai,  ii.  212. 

Slaves,  protected  by  law,  ii.  43. 

 did  not  attend  on  the  king,  ii. 

26. 

Socari,  i.  320. 

Soldiery,  Egyptian,  their  migration 

to  Ethiopia,  ii.  330. 
Solomon,  his  connexion  with  Egypt, 

ii.  288. 

Sothiac  period,  ii.  77  note,  247. 
Sothis  (Isis  and  Dog-star),  i.  281. 
 ,    spurious  work  of  Manetho, 

ii.  73  note. 
Soul,  wicked,  its  punishment,  i.  403. 
South,  symbol  of,  ii.  292. 
Sphinx,  meaning  of,  i.  115. 

 ,  female,  i.  115. 

Sphragistes,  i.  371. 

Stability,  emblem  of,  i.  319,  349. 

Standard  of  kings,  ii.  125. 

Stele,  its  meaning,  ii.  190  note. 

Stibium,  use  of,  i.  211. 

Stolistes,  ii.  86. 

Stork,  veneration  of,  ii.  14. 

Suchus,  i.  329. 

Sukiim,  ii.  291  note. 

Sun,  a  divinity,  i.  331. 

 ,  Fountain  of  the,  i.  60. 

 worshipers,  ii.  91,  212. 

 in  a  state  of  weakness  during 

winter,  i.  352. 
Swine,  use  of,  in  agriculture,  i.  156. 

 ,  herds  of,  i.  388  note. 

 ,  sacrifice  of,  i.  336,  391. 

 ,  emblem  of  gluttony,  i.  403. 

Swineherds,  excluded  from  temples, 

ii.  36. 

Syncellus,  George  the,  ii.  75. 
"Syrians  of  Palestine,"  the  Jews, 
ii  376. 

T. 

Tablet  of  Abydos,  i.  38 ;  ii.  90. 

 of  Karnak,  ii.  90. 

 ,  statistical,  of  Karnak,  ii.  187. 

Tachos,  ii.  423,  427. 
Tahai,  nation,  ii.  187. 
Taia,  ii.  198,  207. 
Tamhu,  nation,  ii.  218. 


INDEX. 


447 


Tamos,  his  assassination  by  Psammi- 

tichus  III.,  ii.  417. 
Tanis,  iL  286. 
Taochi,  ii.  188. 
Taricheutee,  i  412. 
Tav,  or  crux  ansata,  its  signification, 

L  247  note,  254. 
Tan,  placed  on  the  tongue,  ii.  25. 
Taxation  in  Egypt,  ii.  28. 
Thammuz,  mourning  for,  L  348. 
Thebes,  origin  of  the  name,  i.  126 

note. 

 ,  once  co-extensive  with  Egypt, 

ii.  81. 

Theology,  Egyptian,   its  threefold 

source,  i.  309. 
Theosophy,  Egyptian,  L  304. 
Thermuthis,  i.  322,  365. 
Thesmophoria,  i.  392. 
Thieves,  how  organized  in  Egypt,  iL 

45. 

This,  its  site,  ii.  95. 
Thoth,  i.  358. 

 ,  worshiped  in  Nubia,   i.  19, 

24 

Thothmes  I,  ii.  176. 

 II.,  ii.  180. 

 III.,  ii.  181. 

 IV.,  ii.  197. 

Thunder,  rare  in  Egypt,  i.  382. 
Thuoris,  ii.  254. 
Tides  at  Suez,  ii.  336  note. 
Timseus,  king  of  Egypt,  ii.  160. 
Tirhakah,  i.   13,  46,  136;   ii.  197, 
310. 

Tithrambo,  i.  365. 

Titular  name,  whether  incorporated, 

ii.  136  note. 
Tohen,  nation,  ii.  218,  270. 
Tokari,  nation,  ii.  278. 
Tombs,  royal,  i.  141. 
Tools,  buried  with  artificers,  423. 
Toparchies,  ii.  41.  « 
Tourah,  quarries  of,  i.  118. 
Tpe,  L  416. 

Transmigration  of  souls,  i.  401. 
Trees,  sanctity  of,  ii.  10. 
Triaconterides,  i.  396. 
Troglodytes,  i.  55. 
Tropic  of  Cancer,  i.  23,  28. 
Trumpet,   of  late  introduction  in 
Greece,  i.  235. 


Truth,  goddess  of,  i.  342,  360,  374, 

427 ;  ii  43. 
Turin,  papyrus  of,  iL  86. 
Turks,  their  similarity  to  the  Hyksos, 

ii.  165. 

Typhon,  his  emblem,  L  350. 

 ,  mythe  of,  343-352. 

Typhonia,  i.  214,  219. 
Tyre,  siege  of,  by  Shalmaneser,  ii. 
350. 

 ,  ,  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  ii. 

351. 

Tyrians,  camp  of,  ii.  324. 

U. 

Uchoreus,  ii.  85. 

Unity  of  God,  L  367. 

Urim  and  Thummim,  ii.  43  note. 

V. 

Vava,  nation,  ii.  188. 

Venus,  Egyptian,  i.  324. 

Viscera,  the,  considered  as  the  cause 

of  sin,  i.  409. 
 ,  their  embalmment,  i.  409. 

W. 

Wadi  Magara,  i.  54;  ii.  118. 

Water,  mode  of  raising,  i.  160. 

Weeks,  reckoning  by,  i.  283. 

Wells,  Artesian,  L  61. 

Winckelmann,  his  opinions  of  Egyp- 
tian art,  i.  223  note. 

Wine,  its  growth  in  Egypt,  i.  161. 

Women,  their  condition  in  Egypt, 
ii.  46. 

 ,  whether  admitted  to  the  priest- 
hood, i.  379  ;  ii.  30. 

 ,  never  appear  reading  or  writ- 
ing, L  239. 

Wood,  semicircle  of,  used  to  support 
the  head,  i.  199. 

Woods  used  in  carpentry,  i.  186. 

Wool,  its  use  for  garments,  i.  164. 

Woollen  wrappers  of  mummies,  i. 
110,  118,  413. 

Worship  of  animals  among  the  Afri- 
can nations,  ii.  9. 

Wounding  the  forehead  in  mourning, 
L  390. 


448 


INDEX. 


"Writing,   art   cf,   its  antiquity  in 
Egypt,  ii  84,  119. 

X. 

Xois,  ii.  152,  156. 

Y. 

Young,  Dr.,  his  discoveries  in  hiero- 
glyphics, i.  249. 


Z. 

Zagreus,  i.  337. 
Zerach,  ii.  297. 
Zet,  ii.  300. 
Zoan,  ii.  285. 
Zodiac,  signs  of,  i.  286. 
 ,  not  known  to  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, ii.  7. 
Zoega,  i.  298. 
Zuchis,  ii.  353  note. 


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while  it  enforces  truth."— New  York  Courier  and  Inquirer. 

"  -  Lyra  and  other  Poems,'  just  published  by  Redfield,  attracts  everywhere,  a  remark- 
able degree  of  attention.  A  dozen  of  the  leading  journals,  and  many  eminent  critics, 
have  pronounced  the  authoress  the  greatest  poetess  living.'- — New  York  Mirror. 

LILLIAN,  AND  OTHER  POEMS. 

By  Winthrop  Mackworth  Praed.    Now  first  Collected.  One 
Volume  l2mo.     Price  One  Dollar. 

"  A  timely  publication  is  this  volume.  A  more  charming  companion  (in  the  shape  of 
n  book)  can  scarcely  be  found  for  the  summer  holydays."—  New  York  Tribune. 

"  They  are  amusing  sketches,  gay  and  sprightly  in  their  character,  exhibiting  great 
facility  of  composition,  and  considerable  powers  of  satire." — Hartford  Courant. 

"  There  is  a  brilliant  play  of  fancy  in  '  Lillian,'  and  a  moving  tenderness  in  '  Josephine,' 
for  which  it  would  be  hard  to  find  equals.  We  welcome,  therefore,  this  first  collected 
edition  of  his  works." — Albany  Express. 

'•  As  a  writer  of  vers  de  socirte  he  is  pronounced  to  be  without  an  equal  among  Eng- 
lish authors." — Syracuse  Daily  Journal. 

"  The  author  of  this  volume  was  one  of  the  most  fluent  and  versatile  English  poets  that 
have  shone  in  the  literary  world  within  the  last  century.  His  versification  is  astonish- 
ingly easy  and  airy,  and  his  imagery  not  less  wonderfully  graceful  and  aerial." — Albany 
State  Register. 

THE  CAVALIERS  OF  ENGLAND; 

Or,  the  Times  of  the  Revolutions  of  1642  and  1688.    By  Henrt 
William  Herbert.    One  vol.,  12mo.,  price  $1.25. 

"  They  are  graphic  stories,  and  in  the  highest  degree  attractive  to  the  imagination  as 
well  as  instructive,  and  can  not  fail  to  be  popular." — Commercial. 

"  These  tales  are  written  in  the  popular  author's  best  style,  and  give  us  a  vivid  and 
thrilling  idea  of  the  customs  and  influences  of  the  chivalrous  age." — Christian  Freeman. 

"  Bia  narrative  is  always  full  of  great  interest;  his  descriptive  powers  are  of  an  un- 
common order ;  the  romance  of  history  loses  nothing  at  his  hands  ;  he  paints  with  the 
power,  vigor,  and  effect  of  a  master." — The  Times. 

"  They  bring  the  past  days  of  old  England  vividly  before  the  reader,  and  impress  upon 
the  mind  with  Indelible  force,  the  living  images  of  the  puritans  as  well  as  the  cavaliers, 
whose  earnest  character  and  noble  deeds  lend  such  a  lively  interest  to  the  legends  of 
the  times  in  which  they  lived  and  fought,  loved  and  hated,  prayed  and  revelled." — New. 
ark  Daily. 


redfield's  new  and  popular  publications. 


POETICAL  WORKS  OF  FITZ- GREENE  HALLECK. 

New  and  only  Complete  Edition,  containing  several  New  Poems, 
together  with  many  now  first  collected.  One  vol.,  12mo.,  price 
one  dollar. 

"Halleck  is  one  of  the  brightest  stars  in  our  American  literature,  and  his  name  is 
like  a  household  word  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken." — Albany  Express. 

"  There  are  few  poems  to  be  found,  in  any  language,  that  surpass,  in  beauty  of 
thought  and  structure,  some  of  these."— Boston  Commonwealth. 

"  To  the  numerous  admirers  of  Mr.  Halleck,  this  will  be  a  welcome  book ;  for  it  is  a 
characteristic  desire  in  human  nature  to  have  the  productions  of  our  favorite  authors 
in  an  elegant  and  substantial  form." — Christian  Freeman. 

"  Mr.  Halleck  never  appeared  in  a  better  dress,  and  few  poets  ever  deserved  a  better 
one." — Christian  Intelligencer. 


THE  STUDY  OF  WORDS. 
By  Archdeacon  R.  C.  Trench.    One  vol.,  12mo.,  price  75  ct9. 

"  He  discourses  in  a  truly  learned  and  lively  manner  upon  the  original  unity  of  lan- 
guage, and  the  origin,  derivation,  and  history  of  words,  with  their  morality  and  sep- 
arate spheres  of  meaning." — Evening  Post 

"  This  is  a  noble  tribute  to  the  divine  faculty  of  speech.  Popularly  written,  for  use 
as  lectures,  exact  in  its  learning,  and  poetic  in  its  vision,  it  is  a  book  at  once  for  the 
scholar  and  the  general  reader." — New  York  Evangelist. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  original  publications  of  the  day,  with  nothing  of 
hardness,  dullness,  or  dryness  about  it,  but  altogether  fresh,  lively,  and  entertaining." 
—Boston  Evening  Traveller. 

BRONCHITIS,  AND  KINDRED  DISEASES. 

In  lan^ua^e  adapted  to  common  readers.    By  W.  W.  Hall,  M.  D. 
One  vol.,  12  mo,  price  $1.00. 

"It  is  written  in  a  plain,  direct,  common-sense  style,  and  is  free  from  the  quackery 
which  marks  many  of  the  popular  medical  books  of  the  day.  It  will  prove  useful  to 
those  who  need  it  " — Central  Ch.  Herald. 

"  Those  who  are  clergymen,  or  who  are  preparing  for  the  sacred  calling,  and  public 
speakers  generally,  should  not  fail  of  securing  this  work." — Ch.  Ambassador. 

"  It  is  full  of  bints  on  the  nature  of  the  vital  organs,  and  does  away  with  much  super- 
stitious dread  in  regard  to  consumption." — Greene  County  Whig. 

-  This  work  gives  some  valuable  instruction  in  regard  to  food  and  hygienic  influ- 
ences."— Nashua  Oasis. 


KNIGHTS  OF  ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  SCOTLAND. 
By  Henry  William  Herbert.    One  vol.,  12mo.,  price  $1.25. 

"  They  arp  partly  the  romance  of  history  and  partly  fiction,  forming,  when  blended, 
portraitures,  valuable  from  the  correct  drawing  of  the  times  they  illustrate,  and  interest- 
ing from  their  romance." — Albany  Knickerbocker. 

"  They  are  spirit-stirring  productions,  which  will  be  read  and  admired  by  all  who 
are  pleased  with  historical  tales  written  in  a  vigorous,  bold,  and  dashing  style." — Boston 
Journal. 

"  These  legends  of  love  and  chivalry  contain  some  of  the  finest  tales  which  the 
graphic  and  powerful  pen  of  Herbert  has  yet  given  to  the  lighter  literature  of  the  day." 
-Detroit  Free  Press. 


redfield's  new  and  popular  publications. 


CHARACTERS  IN  THE  GOSPEL, 

Illustrating  Phases  of  Character  at  the  Present  Day.  By  Rev.  fi. 
H.  Chapin.    One  vol.,  12mo.,  price  50  cents.    (Second  edition.) 

"As  we  read  his  pages,  the  reformer,  the  sensualist,  the  skeptic,  the  man  of  the 
world,  the  seeker,  the  sister  of  charity  and  of  faith,  stand  out  from  the  Scriptures,  and 
join  themselves  with  our  own  living  world." — Christian  Enquirer. 

"Mr.  Chapin  has  an  easy,  graceful  style,  neatly  touching  the  outlines  of  his  pictures, 
and  giving  great  consistency  and  beauty  to  the  whole.  The  reader  will  find  admirable 
descriptions,  some  most  wholesome  lessons,  and  a  fine  spirit." — N.  Y.  Evangelist. 

"  Its  brilliant  vivacity  of  style  forms  an  admirable  combination  with  its  soundness  of 
thought  and  depth  of  feeling."—  Tribune. 

* 

LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT: 

Memoirs  of  Distinguished  Scottish  Females,  embracing  the  Period 
of  the  Covenant  and  the  Persecution.  By  Rev.  James  Ander- 
son.   One  vol.,  12mo.,  price  $1.25. 

•'It  is  a  record  which,  while  it  confers  honor  on  the  sex,  will  elevate  the  heart,  and 
strengthen  it  to  the  better  performance  of  every  duty." — Religious  Herald.  (Va.) 

"  It  is  a  book  of  great  attractiveness,  having  not  only  the  freshness  of  novelty,  but 
every  element  of  historical  interest." — Courier  and  Enquirer. 

"  It  is  written  with  great  spirit  and  a  hearty  sympathy,  and  abounds  in  incidents  of 
more  than  a  romantic  interest,  while  the  type  of  piety  it  discloses  is  the  noblest  and 
most  elevated."— JV.  Y.  Evangelist. 


TALES  AND  TRADITIONS  OF  HUNGARY. 

By  Theresa  Pulszky,  with  a  Portrait  of  the  Author.    One  vol., 
price  $1.25. 

The  above  contains,  in  addition  to  the  English  publication,  a  new  Preface,  and 
Tales,  now  first  printed  from  the  manuscript  of  the  Author,  who  has  a  direct  interest 
in  the  publication. 

"  This  work  claims  more  attention  than  is  ordinarily  given  to  books  of  its  class.  Such 
is  the  fluency  and  correctness — nay.  even  the  nicety  and  felicity  of  style— with  which 
Madame  Pulszky  writes  the  English  language,  that  merely  in  this  respect  the  tales  here 
collected  form  a  curious  study.  But  they  contain  also  highly  suggestive  illustrations  of 
national  literature  and  character." — London  Examiner. 

"Freshness  of  subject  is  invaluable  in  literature — Hungary  is  still  fresh  ground.  It 
has  been  trodden,  but  it  is  not  yet  a  common  highway.  The  tales  and  legends  are  very 
various,  from  the  mere  traditional  anecdote  to  the  regular  legend,  and  they  have  the 
sort  of  interest  which  all  national  traditions  excite." — London  Leader. 


SORCERY  AND  MAGIC. 

Narratives  of  Sorcery  and  Magic,  from  the  most  Authentic  Sources. 
By  Thomas  Wright,  A.M.,  &c.    One  vol.  12mo.,  price  $1.25. 

"  We  have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  this  one  of  the  most  interesting  works  which 
has  lor  a  lonsr  time  issued  from  the  press." — Albany  Express. 

"The  narratives  are  intensely  interesting,  and  the  more  so,  as  they  are  evidently  writ- 
ten by  a  man  whose  object  is  simply  to  tell  the  truth,  and  who  is  not  himself  bewitched 
by  any  favorite  theory."— N  Y.  Recorder 


redfield's  new  and  popular  publications. 


ISA,  A  PILGRIMAGE. 


By  Caroline  Chesebro'.    One  vol.,  12mo.,  cloth,  price  $1.00. 

*'  The  Pilgrimage  is  fraught  throughout  with  scenes  of  thrilling  interest — romantic, 
yet  possessing  a  naturalness  that  Beems  to  stamp  them  as  real ;  the  style  is  flowing  and 
easy,  chaste  and  beautiful." — Troy  Daily  Times. 

'•  Miss  Chesebro'  is  evidently  a  thinker— she  skims  not  the  mere  surface  of  life,  but 
plunges  boldly  into  the  hidden  mysteries  of  the  spirit,  by  which  she  is  warranted  in 
making  her  startling  revelations  of  human  passion." — Christian  Freeman. 

"There  comes  out  in  this  book  the  evidence  of  an  inventive  mind,  a  cultivated  taste, 
an  exquisite  sensibility,  and  a  deep  knowledge  of  human  nature."— Albany  Argus. 

"  It  is  a  charming  book,  pervaded  by  a  vein  of  pure  ennobling  thought." — Troy  Whig. 

"  There  is  no  one  who  will  doubt  that  this  is  a  courageous  and  able  work,  displaying 
genius  and  depth  of  feeling,  and  striking  at  a  high  and  noble  aim." — N.  Y.  Evangelist. 

"  There  is  a  fine  vein  of  tenderness  running  through  the  story,  which  is  peculiarly 
one  of  passion  and  sentiment." — Arthur's  Home  Gazette. 


By  Henry  James.    One  vol.,  12mo.,  cloth,  price  $1.25. 

"  A  series  of  essays  by  one  of  the  most  generous  thinkers  and  sincere  lovers  of  truth 
in  the  country.  He  looks  at  society  from  an  independent  point  of  view,  and  with  the 
noblest  and  most  intelligent  sympathy." — Home  Journal. 

"This  is  the  production  oi  a  mind  richly  endowed  of  a  very  peculiar  mould.  All 
will  concede  to  him  the  merit  of  a  vigorous  and  brilliant  intellect." — Albany  Argus. 

"A  perusal  of  the  essays  leads  us  to  think,  not  merely  because  of  the  ideas  which 
they  contain,  but  more  because  the  ideas  are  earnestly  put  forth,  and  the  subjects  dis- 
cussed are  interesting  and  important  to  every  one." — Worcester  National  Mgis. 

"  They  have  attracted  much  attention  both  here  and  in  Europe,  where  the  author  is 
considered  as  holding  a  distinctive  and  prominent  position  in  the  school  of  modern 
philosophy." — Albany  Atlas. 

"  The  writer  wields  a  masterly  and  accurate  pen,  and  his  style  is  good."— Boston 
Olive  Branch. 

"  It  will  have  many  readers,  and  almost  as  many  admirers." — N.  Y.  Times. 


History  of  the  War  in  the  Peninsula,  and  in  the  South  of  France, 
from  the  Year  1807  to  1814.  By  W.  F.  P.  Napier,  C.  B.,  Col. 
43d  Reg.,  &c.    Complete  in  one  vol.,  8vo.,  price  $3.00. 

"  We  believe  the  Literature  of  War  has  not  received  a  more  valuable  augmentation 
this  century  than  Col.  Napier's  justly  celebrated  work.  Though  a  gallant  combatant  in 
the  field,  he  is  an  impartial  historian." — Tribune. 

"  Napier's  History,  in  addition  to  its  superior  literary  merits  and  truthful  fidelity, 
presents  strong  claims  upon  the  attention  of  all  American  citizens  ;  because  the  author 
is  a  large-souled  philanthropist  and  an  inflexible  enemy  to  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and 
secular  despots." — Pott. 

"  The  excellency  of  Napier's  History  results  from  the  writer's  happy  talent  for  im- 
petuous, straight-forward,  soul-stirring  narrative  and  picturing  forth  of  characters 
The  military  manoeuvre,  march,  and  fiery  onset,  the  whole  whirlwind  vicissitudes  o* 
the  desperate  fight,  he  describes  with  dramatic  force."—  Merchants'  Magazine. 


LECTURES  AND  MISCELLANIES. 


NAPIER'S  PENINSULAR  WAR. 


redfield's  new  and  popular  publications. 


REICHENBACH  ON  DYNAMICS. 


Phvsico-Physiological  Researches  on  the  Dynamics  of  Magnetism, 
Electricity,  Heat,  Light,  Crystallization,  and  Chemism,  in  their 
relation  to  Vital  Force:  By  Baron  Charles  Von  Reichenbach. 
With  the  Addition  of  a  Preface  and  Critical  Notes,  by  John 
Ashburner,  M.  D.  With  all  the  Plates.  In  one  Volume, 
12mo,  456  pp.    Price,  $1.25. 

"  This  book  is  a  valuable  addition  to  scientific  knowledge  upon  subjects  that  have  hith 
erto  been  involved  in  obscurity  and  mysticism.  Charlatans  have  so  long  availed  them 
selves  of  a  slight  knowledge  of  the  phenomena  of  magnetism  for  mercenary  purposes, 
that  discredit  has  been  thrown  upon  the  whole  subject,  and  men  of  science  have  been 
deterred  from  pursuing,  or  at  least  from  publishing  their  researches.  The  work  before 
us  gives  the  result  of  a  vast  number  of  experiments  conducted  with  great  philosophical 
acumen,  testing  the  truth  of  both  modern  theories  and  ancient  superstitions.  Phenom- 
ena attributed  in  past  ages  to  a  supernatural  agency,  and  by  the  superficial  skepticism 
of  later  times  dismissed  as  mere  impostures,  are  in  many  instances  traced  with  great 
clearness  to  natural  and  explicable  causes.  It  requires,  and  is  eminently  worthy  of  an 
attentive  perusal."—  City  Item. 


Or,  Secrets  of  the  World  to  Come,  revealed  through  Magnetism ; 
wherein  the  Existence,  the  Form,  and  the  Occupations  of  the  Soul, 
after  its  Separation  from  the  Body,  are  proved  by  Many  Years' 
Experiments,  by  the  Means  of  eight  Ecstatic  Somnambulists,  who 
had  eighty  Perceptions  of  thirty-six  Deceased  Persons  of  various 
Conditions.  A  description  of  them,  their  Conversation,  etc.,  with 
Proofs  of  their  Existence  in  the  Spiritual  World.  By  L.  Alph. 
Cahagnet.    In  one  volume,  12mo,  410  pp.    Price  $1.25. 

"  Mr.  Cahagnet  has  certainly  placed  the  human  race  under  a  vast  debt  of  obligation 
to  himself,  by  the  vast  amount  of  information  vouchsafed  respecting  our  hereafter. 
What  we  have  read  in  this  volume  has  exceedingly  interested  us  in  many  ways  and  for 
many  reasons — chiefly,  perhaps,  because  we  have  perused  it  as  we  would  any  other 
able  work  of  fiction.  As  a  work  of  imagination,  it  is  almost  incomparable,  i^ome  of 
the  revelations  are  as  marvellous  and  interesting  as  those,  or  that,  of  Poe's  M.  Valde- 
mar.  We  commend  this  work  to  lovers  of  the  wild  and  incredible  in  romance." — 
Ontario  Repository. 


Theory  of  Pneumatology  ;  in  Reply  to  the  Qnestion,  What  ought  to 
be  believed  or  disbelieved  concerning  Presentiments,  Visions,  and 
Apparitions,  according  to  Nature,  Reason,  and  Scripture.  By 
Doet.  Johann  Heinrich  Jung-Stilling.  Translated  from  the 
German,  with  copious  Notes,  by  Samuel  Jackson.  Edited  by 
Rev.  George  Bush.    In  one  vol.,  12mo,  300  pp.    Price  $1. 

"We  have  in  the  course  of  the  discussion,  a  philosophical  account  of  the  magnetic 
influence,  a*  showing  the  influence  of  mind  upon  mind,  as  well  as  of  various  other  an- 
alogous subjects.  The  array  of  facts  brought  forward  by  the  author  is  curious,  and  the 
work  will  interest  anv  one  who  is  engaged  in  studying  the  different  phases  of  the  hu> 
man  mind."— State  Register. 


THE  CELESTIAL  TELEGRAPH: 


STTLLIN&S  PNEUMATOLOGY. 


redfield's  new  and  popular  publications. 


THE  NIGHT-SIDE  ON  NATURE; 

Or,  Ghosts  and  Ghost-Seers.  By  Catharine  Crowe.  One  vol., 
12mo.,  price  $1.25. 

"In  this  remarkable  work,  Miss  Crowe,  who  writes  with  the  vigor  ard  grace  of  a 
woman  of  strong  sense  and  high  cultivation,  collects  the  most  remarkable  and  best  au- 
thenticated accounts,  traditional  and  recorded,  of  preternatural  visitations  and  appear- 
ances."— Boston  Transcript. 

"  An  almost  unlimited  fund  of  interesting  illustrations  and  anecdotes  touching  the 
spiritual  world." — New  Orleans  Bee. 

THE  WORKS  OF  EDGAR  ALLAN  POE ; 

Complete  in  Three  Volumes,  with  a  Portrait,  a  Memoir  by  James 
Russell  Lowell,  and  an  Introductory  Essay  by  N.  P.  Willis;  edit- 
ed by  Rufus  W.  Griswold.    12mo.,  price  $4.00. 

'•  We  need  not  say  that  these  volumes  will  be  found  rich  in  intellectual  excitements, 
and  abounding  in  remarkable  specimens  of  vigorous,  beautiful,  and  highly  suggestive 
composition  ;  they  are  all  that  remain  to  us  of  a  man  whose  uncommon  genius  it  would 
be  folly  to  deny  ."— N.  JT.  Tribune. 

"Mr.  Poe's  intellectual  character — his  genius — is  stamped  upon  all  his  productions, 
and  we  shall  place  these  his  works  in  the  library  among  those  books  not  to  be  parted 
with." — iV  Y.  Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  These  productions  will  live.  They  bear  the  stamp  of  true  genius ;  and  if  their  repu- 
tation begins  with  a  'fit  audience  though  few,'  the  circle  will  be  constantly  widening, 
and  they  will  retain  a  prominent  place  in  our  literature." — Rev.  Dr.  Kip. 


CHAPMAN S  AMERICAN  DRAWING-BOOK. 

The  American  Drawing-Book,  intended  for  Schools,  Academies,  and 
Self-Instruction.  By  John  G.  Chapman,  N.  A.  Three  Parts 
now  published,  price  50  cents  each. 

This  Work  will  be  issued  in  Parts  ;  and  will  contain  Primary  Instruction  and  Rudi- 
ments of  Drawing :  Drawing  from  Nature  —  Materials  and  Methods  :  Perspective  — 
Composition  —  Landscape  —  Figures,  etc.  :  Drawing,  as  applicable  to  the  Mechanic  Arts : 
Painting  in  Oil  and  Water  Colors :  The  Principles  of  Light  and  Shade :  External  Anato- 
my of  the  Human  Form,  and  Comparative  Anatomy  :  The  Various  Methods  of  Etching, 
Engraving,  Modelling,  &c. 

"  It  has  received  the  sanction  of  many  of  our  most  eminent  artists,  and  can  scarcely 
be  commended  too  highly  ." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

■'■  But  so  clearly  are  its  principles  developed  in  the  beautiful  letter-press,  and  so  exquis- 
itely are  they  illustrated  by  the  engravings,  that  the  pupil's  way  is  opened  most  invi- 
tingly to  a  thorough  knowledge  of  both  the  elements  and  application." — Home  Journal. 

"  The  engravings  are  superb,  and  the  typography  unsurpassed  by  any  book  with 
which  we  are  acquainted.  It  is  an  honor  to  the  author  and  publisher,  and  a  credit  to 
our  common  country." — Scientific  American. 

"  This  work  is  so  distinct  and  progressive  in  its  instructions  that  we  can  not  well  see 
how  it  could  fail  to  impart  a  full  and  complete  knowledge  of  the  art.  Nothing  can  vie 
with  it  in  artistic  and  mechanical  execution." — Knickerbocker  Magazine. 


RED  FIELDS 

TOY  BOOKS, 

FOUR  SERIES  OF  TWELVE  BOOKS  EACH, 

FROM  DESIGNS  BY  A.  G  CHAPMAN. 


First  Series— Price  One  Cent. 

1.  Tom  Thumb's  Picture  Alphabet,  in  Rhyme. 

2.  Rhymes  for  the  Nursery. 

3.  Pretty  Rhymes  about  Birds  and  Animals,  for  little  Boys  and  Girls. 

4.  Life  on  the  Farm,  in  Amusing  Rhyme. 

5.  The  Story-Book  for  Good  Little  Girls. 

6.  The  Beacon,  or  Warnings  to  Thoughtless  Boys. 

7.  The  Picture  Book,  with  Stories  in  Easy  Words,  for  Little  Readere. 

8.  The  Little  Sketch-Book,  or  Useful  Objects  Illustrated. 

9.  History  of  Domestic  Animals. 

10.  The  Museum  of  Birds. 

11.  The  Little  Keepsake,  a  Poetic  Gift  for  Children. 

12.  The  Book  of  the  Sea,  for  the  Instruction  of  Little  Sailors. 

Second  Series— Price  Two  Cents. 

1.  The  A  B  C  in  Verse,  for  Young  Learners. 

2.  Figures  in  Verse,  and  Simple  Rhymes,  for  Little  Learners. 

3.  Riddles  for  the  Nursery. 

4.  The  Child's  Story-Book. 

5.  The  Christmas  Dream  of  Little  Charle3. 

6.  The  Basket  of  Strawberries. 

7.  Story  for  the  Fourth  of  July,  an  Epitome  of  American  History 

8.  The  Two  Friends,  and  Kind  Little  James. 

9.  The  Wagon-Boy,  or  Trust  in  Providence. 

10.  Paulina  and  Her  Pets. 

11.  Simple  Poems  for  Infant  Minds. 

12.  Little  Poems  for  Little  Children. 

Third  Series— Price  Four  Cents. 

1.  The  Alphabet  in  Rhyme. 

2.  The  Multiplication  Table  in  Rhyme,  for  Young  Arithmeticians. 

3.  The  Practical  Joke,  or  the  Christmas  Story  of  Uncle  Ned. 

4.  Little  George,  or  Temptation  Resisted. 

5.  The  Young  Arithmetician,  or  the  Reward  of  Perseverance. 

6.  The  Traveller's  Story,  or  the  Village  Bar-Room. 

7  The  Sagacity  and  Intelligence  of  the  Horse. 

8  The  Young  Sailor,  or  the  Sea-Life  of  Tow  Bowline. 

9.  The  Selfish  Girl,  a  Tale  of  Truth. 

10.  Manual  or  Finger  Alphabet,  used  by  the  Deaf  and  Dumb. 
11  The  Story-Book  in  Verse. 

12.  The  Flower- Vase,  or  Pretty  Poems  for  Good  little  Children. 
Fourth  Scries— Price  Six  Cents. 

1.  The  Book  of  Fables,  in  Prose  and  Verse 

2.  The  Little  Casket,  filled  with  Pleasant  Stories. 

3.  Home  Pastimes,  or  Enigmas,  Charades,  Rebuses,  Conundrums,  etc. 

4.  The  Juvenile  Sunday-Book,  adapted  to  the  Improvement  of  the  Young 

5.  William  Seaton  and  the  Buttertly,  with  its  Interesting  History. 

6.  The  Young  Girl's  Book  of  Healthful  Amusements  and  Exercises. 

7.  Theodore  Carleton,  or  Perseverance  against  Ill-Fortune. 

8  The  Aviary,  or  Child's  Book  of  Birds. 

9  The  Jungle,  or  Child's  Book  of  Wild  Animals. 

10.  Sagacity  and  Fidelity  of  the  Dog,  Illustrated  by  Interesting  Anecdotea 

11.  Coverings  for  the  Head  and  Feet,  in  all  Ages  and  Countries. 

12.  Romance  of  Ind;nn  History,  or  Incidents  in  the  Early  Settlements. 


CONTEMPORARY  BIOGRAPHY. 


MEN  OF  THE  TIME, 

OK  SKETCHES  OF  LIVING  ROTABLES, 

AUTHORS  ENGINEERS  '  PHILANTHROPISTS 

ARCHITECTS       JOURNALISTS  PREACHERS 
ARTISTS  MINISTERS  SAVANS 

COMPOSERS         MONARCH  S  STATESMEN 

DEMAGOGUES      NOVELISTS  TRAVELLERS 
DIVINES  POLITICIANS  VOYAGERS 

DRAMATISTS        POETS  WARRIORS 

In  One  Vol.,  \2mo,  containing  nearly  Xine  Hundred  Biograph- 
ical Sketches — Price  $1.50. 

"I  am  glad  to  learn  that  you  are  publishing  this  work.  It  is  precisely  that  kind  of 
information  that  every  public  and  intelligent  man  desires  to  see,  especially  in  reference 
to  the  distinguished  men  of  Europe,  but  which  I  have  found  it  extremely  difficult  to 
obtain  " — Extract  from  a  Letter  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  the  publisher. 

«•  In  its  practical  usefulness  this  work  will  supply  a  most  important  desideratum." — 
Courier  \  Enquirer. 

"  It  forms  a  valuable  manual  for  reference,  especially  in  the  American  department, 
which  we  can  not  well  do  without ;  we  commend  it  to  the  attention  of  our  '  reading 
public.' " — Tribune. 

Just  the  book  we  have  desired  a  hundred  times,  brief,  statistical  and  biographical 
sketches  of  men  now  living,  in  Europe  and  America." — New  York  Observer. 

"  It  is  a  book  of  reference  which  every  newspaper  reader  should  have  at  his  elbow — 
as  indi-pensable  as  a  map  or  a  d'crionarv — and  from  which  the  best-informed  will  de- 
rive instruction  and  pk  asure." — Evangelist. 

"This  book  therefore  tills  a  place  in  literature  ;  and  once  published,  we  do  not  see 
how  any  one  could  do  without  it." — Albany  Express. 

"It  is  evidently  compiled  with  great  care  and  labor,  and  every  possible  means  seems 
to  have  been  used  to  secure  the  big!  est  degree  of  correctness.  It  contains  a  crcat  deal 
of  valuable  information,  and  is  admirable  as  a  book  of  reference." — Albany  Argus. 

"It  is,  to  our  notion,  the  most  valuable  collection  of  contemporary  biographies  yet 
made  in  this  or  any  other  country  The  author  acknowledges  that  its  compilation  was 
a  'labor  of  care  and  responsibility  '  We  believe  him.  and  we  give  him  credit  for  hav 
ins  executed  that  labor  after  a  fashion  that  will  command  general  and  lasting  approv- 
al " — Sunday  Times,  and  Noah's  Weekly  Messenger. 

"  This  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  works  lately  issued— valuable  not  only  for  general 
reading  and  study,  but  as  a  book  of  reference.  It  is  certainly  the  fullest  collection  of 
contemporary  Biographies  yet  made  in  this  country." — Troy  Daily  Times. 

"  This  is  emphatically  a  book  worthy  of  the  name,  and  will  secure  an  extended  pop- 
ularity."— Detroit  Daily  Advertiser. 

"A  book  of  refer-  nee  un<  quail,  d  in  either  value  or  interest.  It  is  indeed  a  grand  sup- 
plement and  appendix  to  the  modern  histories,  to  the  reviews,  to  the  daily  newspapers 
— a  book  which  a  m*  n  anxious  to  he  regarded  as  intelligent  and  well-informed,  can  no 
more  do  without  than  a  churchman  can  do  without  his  prayer  book,  a  sailor  his  navi- 
gator, or  a  Wall  street  man  his  almanac  and  interest  tables." — New  York  Day  Book. 

"The  volume  once  known  will  be  found  indispensable,  and  will  prove  a  constant 
source  of  information  to  readers  at  large." — N.  Y.  Reveille. 

"For  a  book  of  reference,  this  volume  will  recommend  itself  as  an  invaluable  com- 
panion  in  the  library,  office,  and  studio." — Northern  Budget. 

"  It  is  a  living  breathins  epitome  of  the  day,  a  directory  to  that  wide  phantasmagoria 
we  call  the  world-" — Wall  Street  Journal. 

"  We  know  of  no  more  valuable  book  to  authors,  editors,  statemen,  and  all  who 
would  be  'up  with  the  time,'  than  this." — Spirit  of  the  Times. 

"  Men  of  all  nations,  cree.is  and  parties,  appear  to  be  treated  in  a  kindly  spirit.  The 
work  will  be  found  a  useful  supplement  to  the  ordinary  biographical  dictionaries." — 
Commercial  Advertiser. 

'■  The  value  of  such  a  work  ran  scarcely  be  over-estimated.  To  the  statesman  and 
philanthropist,  as  well  as  the  scholar  and  business  man,  it  will  be  found  of  great  con- 
venience as  a  reference  book,  and  mast  soon  be  considered  as  indispensable  to  a  library 
as  Webster's  Dictionary." — Lockport  Courier. 


WORKS  IN  PREPARATION. 


PHILOSOPHERS  AND  ACTRESSES. 

By  Arsene  Houssaye.  With  beautifully-engraved  Portraits  of 
Voltaire  and  Mad.  Parabere.    Two  vols.,  12mo. 

COMPARATIVE  PHYSIOGNOMY; 

Or  Resemblances  between  Men  and  Animals.  By  J.  W.  Redfield, 
M.  D.     In  one  vol.,  8vo,  with  several  hundred  illustrations. 

ANCIENT  EGYPT  UNDER  THE  PHARAOHS. 
By  John  Kendrick,  M.  A.    In  2  vols.,  12mo. 

FATHER  MARQUETTE'S  DISCOVERY 

And  Exploration  of  the  Valley  and  River  of  the  Mississippi.  By 
John  J.  Shea.  With  fac-similes  and  a  copy  of  his  Map.  Now 
first  translated  from  the  original  manuscripts.    In  1  vol.,  8vo. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CRUSADES. 

By  Joseph  Francois  Michaud.  Translated  by  Robson.  Three 
vols.,  12mo. 

NEWMAN'S  REGAL  ROME. 
In  1  vol.,  12mo.    Price  75  cents. 

THE  CHILDREN  OF  LIGHT. 

A  new  work  by  Caroline  Chesebro',  author  of  "  Isa,  a  Pilgrim- 
age," and  "  Dream  Land  by  Daylight." 

THE  CHEVALIERS  OF  FRANCE; 

From  the  Crusaders  to  the  Mareschals  of  Louis  XIV.  Br  Henry 
William  Herbert.    One  vol.,  12mo. 

THE  PURITANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND: 

An  Historical  Romance  of  the  Days  of  Witchcraft.  By  Henry 
William  Herbert,  Author  of  "Cavaliers  of  England,"  "  Mar- 
maduke  Wyvil,"  &c.    One  vol.,  12mo,  price  $1.25. 

HOLLAND  AND  FLEMISH  PAINTERS. 

The  History  of  Painters  and  Painting  in  Holland  and  Flanders 
By  Arsene  Houssaye.  With  a  beautifully-engraved  Portrait 
of  Rubens,  from  the  picture  of  himself.    One  vol.,  12mo. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 
By  Arsene  Houssaye.    Four  vols.,  12mo,  with  Portraits. 


DATE  DUE 


-4 

DEMCO  38-297 

DT83  .K36  v.2 

Ancient  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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